Demons and Drakons
by Katie Macpherson
Summary: The fall of the giants released thousands of monsters into the world. Still grieving their losses, Percy Jason Leo and Hazel leave Camp behind to track down the last remnants of the war before they can do further harm to humanity. And during their travels across America, they meet two brothers who, like them, understand exactly what its like to lose everything.
1. Chapter 1

Demons and Drakons

Chapter 1

Prologue:

Leo set his hand on fire and carefully pressed it to the wood, watching it dance across the tinder. He did this twice more before straightening up and stepping back. The fires were carefully controlled and Leo wouldn't let them get any higher than they already were.

The three funeral pyres were of equal height, but on top of each one lay a different brightly coloured shroud. They were grey, red and hot pink. On the front of each shroud, a simple picture was embroidered. An owl imitating flight, a series of animals, and a sharp shiny dagger that gave the appearance of a mirror. Each shroud symbolized a personality that its demigod had embodied in life.

Long after the remaining members of the camp had paid their respects and drifted sadly away to finish repairing the camp after the disaster that had occurred when the members of Camp Jupiter had attacked, the five demigods remained.

They stood together, arms around each other watching the smoke rise and curl in the evening air. The sun was just going down over the ocean, and the whole scene created a lovely picture, that unfortunately went unnoticed by the five.

The smallest of them turned her face into Leo's shoulder to hide her tears. None of the others wept however, the time for that had passed.

Leo put his arm around Hazel and pulled her closer. The only sound that could be heard was her soft sobs and shuddering intakes of breath.

After a while however, the fire began to die out, and the wood started to char and refused to burn, the ashes were blown away on the evening breeze. But still the demi gods stayed.

Finally, Thalia spoke up. "So what happens now?" she asked and they turned to face her. She was dressed in a dark leather jacket over black jeans and combat boots and a black shirt that read: Death to Barbie, on the front. She wore a long silver necklace with a skull pendant on it and her short choppy dark hair was tousled. Her blue eyes which normally crackled with electricity looked like dead circuits. She was standing with her arm around a tall boy with blonde hair and blue eyes like hers.

Percy took a deep breath and stepped forward looking at each of his friends carefully in turn. His black hair was askew like he had a serious case of bed head and his green eyes which were normally vibrant and full of life like an ocean, appeared washed out and faded.

"Look, I can't speak for the rest of you guys, and I don't know where you were planning to go from here, but I can't go back to being the leader of Camp Half-blood. I can't do it, in fact, I don't think I can stay here at all."

"Where will you go Percy?" Thalia asked in a small voice. Percy shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the remains of the funeral pyre.

"When we sent the giants back to Tartarus, all the monsters that were with them escaped. You saw that battle and how each kept summoning waves of them from the underworld. Gaea's asleep but the battle isn't over yet. I'm going to track down the monsters and send them all back before this war can cause any more havoc."

There was silence, then…..

"Yeah, I'm with you Percy," Jason spoke up and the son of Poseidon shot him a grateful look. Jason took a deep breath and looked at his sister.

"I can't go back to Camp Jupiter and become praetor again, Reyna was always better at it then I was anyway." He walked over to Percy and clapped his shoulder. "I'm going with you man, this job's too big for one demigod, even if that demigod's you."

He and Percy grinned weakly at each other. Leo looked at the both of them with concern.

"Are you guys sure about this? I mean we still have a home, granted it's a home that's badly in need of some TLC, but it's still ours."

Jason looked at his friend sadly. "Maybe so Leo, but Percy's right, I can't stay here."

Leo exhaled all in one breath and tried not to feel as if his stomach was dropping like the elevator on the empire state building.

"Alright, then I'm coming too," he stated stepping forward. Jason frowned at him. "Are you sure man? I mean, we just got through fighting a war, you just want to jump back in?"

Leo smirked at him. "Look, I've never been much of a stay in one place kind of guy anyway. And this job is way bigger than two demigods, you guys need all the help you can get."

He didn't notice it right away, but both Jason and Percy looked relieved. The three of them then turned to the girl standing next to Leo.

"Hazel, what are you going to do?" Jason asked gently. Pluto's daughter raised a hand to her face and wiped away the last of the moisture there.

"I've had enough of the gods and their battles for a while. This is something easy. I'm with you guys," she said quietly. Percy looked at her, concerned.

"Are you sure Hazel? You told me that you had had enough of fighting. You could go back to Camp Jupiter, maybe start a family eventually."

The look that Hazel gave him was steely as ice. "As far as I'm concerned the only family I still have is right here. Annabeth, Piper and Frank wouldn't want us to play Rambo on our own anyway." Her lower lip trembled as she said the last name and Leo gave her shoulder a squeeze. After a moment though, she squared herself and looked at all of them.

"We're a family now, and I will be damned if I let you guys go off on your own and get yourselves killed. I'm going with you, end of discussion."

"Ok then," Jason said going into strategy mode. "Where do we start?" Percy exhaled loudly.

"We follow the trail of the monsters, they always leave markers behind, and we start from there." The wind scattered his words across the green.

"Are you guys sure you want to do this?" Thalia asked. She looked like she was about to cry which was as normal for Thalia as a solar eclipse. Jason reached down and squeezed his sister's hand.

"We're sure, we started this quest…..we need to end it." The tone of his voice thudded with finality and Thalia swallowed hard, nodding sadly.

"The hunters and I leave tomorrow. Artemis has another mission for us. Our paths might cross sometimes…..but you'll keep in touch right?" her eyes sparkled with tears and Jason pulled her into a hug.

"Always sis, you do the same."

She nodded, and the other demigods hugged her goodbye. Then she turned and hurried up the hill to the cabin of Artemis.

Percy rubbed his hands together again as if trying to warm them. "Alright guys, if this is what you all want then we better get started. Let's go pack up and meet in front of the big house in half an hour."

Ω

"Are you sure you're gonna be ok?" Leo said worriedly as he and Hazel walked back to the cabins. They had gotten lucky that some of the bunkers were still standing, hers and his among them.

Hazel gave him a watery smile. He was being incredibly sweet lately, worried about everybody. But she wanted the old Leo back, the one who made jokes to get himself out of an awkward situation, who made each problem seem a little less overwhelming, who was able to invent a contraption out of toothpicks to get them all out of a jam.

But there was no joking or building things to get out of death, she would know that better than anyone.

So instead of letting her real feelings show through, she smiled again and playfully punched his shoulder.

"I'll be alright Valdez, you just worry about getting us some transportation out of here." Leo grinned, his black eyes lighting in that mischievous sparkle she knew so well.

"Hey I'm on it, don't you worry about a thing."

With that, he turned and hurried across the green to Bunker 9, some of the Leo spring coming back into his step.

But as Hazel walked up the steps to the cabin of Hades, she wondered if she would ever be alright again. She pushed open the door and tried not to sob when she saw Nico's bed, messy and unmade as usual.

She would never be alright if she had to walk past his bed every day and pretend that he wasn't gone. This cabin would stifle her and she knew it.

Absently she grabbed one of the overnight bags tucked onto one of the upper shelves and began shoving clothes into it. Something shiny caught her eye on the bedside table and she nearly started crying again when she saw it was Piper's dagger. Instead though she picked it up and belted it to her waist. It was one of the best ways to honor her friend that she could think of.  
>She zipped up her bag and retrieved her spatha that was leaning against her headboard. She strapped it to her back so the hilt rose up over her left shoulder. After grabbing one of the sleeping bags that they had stored in the cabin, Hazel slung it and her overnight bag over shoulder. She walked to the door and looked back one last time.<br>But she couldn't leave yet. Suddenly she saw the hilt of Nico's Stygian iron sword sticking out from under his pillow and she walked toward it.  
>She needed something to remember him by. Without thinking twice, she pulled it out and stashed it in her bag.<br>Then without a backward glance, she turned and walked out the door vowing that she would never set foot in that cabin again.

She turned away from the green and walked up the hill towards the big house. Well, at least what was left of it. The roof was missing, the right wall was caved in and all the windows were shattered.  
>Chiron was standing on the front porch talking to Jason and Percy. His face was sad but resigned.<br>"You don't have to leave," he was saying to the thwo of them as Hazel approached. "Camp Half-blood will be rebuilt."  
>Percy shook his head. "This isn't home any more Chiron, we have a job to finish, when it's done, we'll come back, but for now…"<br>He didn't finish, but Jason's expression mirrored his own. They were done with the camper's life. It was time to stop trying to live a normal life and embrace what they were.  
>Chiron bent his front legs and shook hands with each of them before giving Hazel a hug.<br>"At least promise me that you will keep in touch," he said in his gravelly voice made even rougher by emotion. All of them nodded.

"Yo, Fantastic Four! Let's get going, we have monsters to waste!" called Leo's familiar voice. Jason Percy and Hazel turned to see him standing on the green. He was dressed similarly to them with an overnight bag and bed roll. His famous tool belt was around his waist, and he was wearing his brown leather jacket. His hair was stuck up in its familiar oily quills and Hazel made a note to get this boy to wash his hair.

"You get us some transportation Valdez?" Percy called as the three them and Chiron descended the porch steps.

Leo gripped his chest feigning disbelief. "You wound me Jackson, of course I did."

In his right hand he held up a set of car keys.

Hazel frowned, the only vehicle on anywhere near them was the camp van and she was sure that they weren't going to take that.

"I found us some transportation in the bunker," he offered and Hazel cringed wondering what on earth he had managed to fix this time. She sure as hell didn't want to be trekking across America on bronze dragon or a Greek war vessel like last time.

"Please tell me we are not riding on a bronze lion or anything else like that," Jason groaned mirroring her thoughts and Hazel shot him a smile.

"I heard that!" Leo called as he approached. He spread his hands in a gesture of persuasion. "Have I ever failed to provide us with adequate transportation?" He asked. "How about my peeps who have so little faith in my abilities go to the top of the hill and check out our ride?"

Not having to be told twice, the five of them hurried up the hill, past Thalia's tree and out onto the other side.

Hazel's jaw went slack. "God's of Olympus," she whispered.

Sitting on the road about fifty feet away, was a 1964 fully restored candy apple red Ford Mustang.

Jason whistled low in his throat. "Now that is a car."

"Dibs on driving!" Percy yelled snatching the keys from Leo and bolting for the Mustang.

"Wait a minute Jackson, what if I wanted to drive?" Jason shouted racing down the hill after him. Leo rolled his eyes and followed, muttering under his breath about he was the one who got the car, maybe he would be the one who would like to drive?

Chiron glanced down at the last demigod. "Are you sure you want to do this Hazel Levesque?" he asked seriously. She looked up at him and nodded.

"We need something to take our minds off this," she said not wanting to explain and knowing that Chiron would understand anyway.

"Annabeth, Frank and Piper wouldn't want us to sit around and mope. This way we'll be doing something good with our time. And maybe it'll allow us to get over what happened. The boys need this maybe more than I do."

Chiron nodded somberly. "Very well then, but please try to stay safe. I don't want to lose any more campers."

Hazel nodded and blinked back tears as the old centaur gave her one last hug. Before pulling away though he whispered in her ear.

"Take care of them Hazel, Percy Jason and Leo will need you before this is all over."

She frowned at him and was about to ask what that meant when she heard her name being called.

"Hey Hazel, you coming or what?"

She looked down the hill to see Jason waving to her. She waved back.

"I'll be right there," she replied. Chiron patted her shoulder. "You had better go," he said.

"But what about-"

"Don't worry, trust yourself Hazel, when the time comes, whether its fighting or just being there for them, you'll know what to do."

Deciding that that was as good of an answer as she was going to get, Hazel turned and hurried down the hill.

Jason took her bags from her and threw them in the trunk of the Mustang. She slid into the backseat next to Leo and opened the map Jason handed her.

Percy slid the key into the ignition and the engine roared to life. He turned in his seat and grinned at them, eager to be off on another adventure, eager to be away from the memories.

"You guys ready?" he asked.

"Take it away Jackson," Jason said.

Percy turned the car onto the road, and Hazel looked out the window at the lone figure of the centaur standing atop the hill, his hand raised in farewell.

She had a feeling that she wouldn't see him again for a very long time.

Ω


	2. Chapter 2

TWO YEARS LATER...

"Hazel watch out!" Leo yelled and Pluto's daughter launched herself into a backwards arch as he shot a jet of flame over her head. She back flipped back to a standing position and grinned when she saw that the monster behind her had crumbled to ash.

"Nice going Valdez!" She called as another monster came at her. Her thoughts immediately went into combat mode. Hazel parried sidestepped and blocked his swings. It was almost too easy. She spun on her heel and in a single stroke decapitated him and watched with satisfaction as the body slid to the floor at her feet. That bought her a few seconds to look around for her friends.

Leo was a human torch, weaving in and out of the monsters, the flames around his body so hot that it melted them if they came too close. She looked around and saw Jason standing in the middle of a group of them, whirling his golden lance this way and that. He caught Hazel's eye and threw her a grin.

Hazel glanced around, looking for Percy and Jason. The house was abandoned and they had gotten wind of a monster nest here a few days ago. So naturally they decided to check it out. Of course, these weren't your garden variety empousai demons. Hazel had never fought a vampire before, and she was a little reluctant to, given that they looked like perfectly normal people.

That was until one of them had tried to suck Jason's blood.

Oh, then it was on.

So that was how she found herself in an abandoned farm house late at night in the middle of nowhere fighting off monsters straight out of _Twilight. _

Although Hazel could have sworn that they were supposed to be better looking than this. She glanced around the room as she caught her breath.

But where was Percy?

She didn't have time to follow up that thought with a second one when a burly looking vampire lunged for her out of the shadows. Hazel barely sidestepped out of the way before he had turned to face her. He looked at least seven feet tall, and he dwarfed Hazel's five foot seven frame.

He grinned. "Well aren't you a pretty looking thing, you'll make a tasty morsel for sure." Hazel's lip curled in disgust. She definitely couldn't outmuscle him, but she sure as hell could outsmart him.

As the vampire lunged for her again, Hazel waited until the last second before launching herself into the air, twisting into a somersault and landing on his back. She knew she wouldn't be able to maintain this position for long so she grabbed the scruff of his neck and yanked him backwards as hard as she could before launching herself off his back, grabbing hold of one of the lower wooden rafters attached to the beams that held the house up, swinging herself around like a gymnast and nailing him in the stomach.

She sent the vampire flying across the room right onto the point of Percy's sword. Hazel dropped lightly onto her feet and surveyed the room making sure it was devoid of monsters before she straightened up.

Jason walked over to Leo who had just finished burning the last of the vampires and looked at Hazel in disbelief.

"Have you been taking lessons from Cirque du Soleil that we don't know about?" he asked. Percy and Leo looked at her for an explanation.

Hazel shrugged her shoulders. "Hey I live with the three of you. I have to keep up don't I?" she asked.

Leo grinned and shook his head. "Hey whatever works right?"

Percy surveyed the mess, a grim expression on his face. They had done a number on the house. All the windows were shattered, the roof was caved in from when Jason had called down lightning and they were standing knee deep in water from when Percy had caused the pipes to burst so as the distract the vampires.

Leo ran a hand through his hair causing it to stand on end. "Yeah, we gotta get better at clean up you guys."

"I'm more worried about someone hearing about this fight," Jason mused, returning his lance to coin form. Percy sheathed Riptide and Leo slung his silver tipped ballpeen hammers back to his tool belt.

"Come on you guys it's almost midnight in the middle of nowhere and I could definitely use some shut eye," Hazel commented as she strapped her knife back to her thigh.

"Sounds like a plan," Leo said adjusting his tool belt and eyeing the mess. "Let's get out of dodge before someone gets here and we get busted for arson, express lightning flash floods, and whatever else they can book us with."

With that, the four demigods made a quick exit from the homestead. Jason had parked the car about a mile away in a grove of trees off the main highway so they had to run all the way there.

No one was worried though, the four of them moved like a team, which was exactly what they were. The last two years had forced it upon them, and even before during the war with the giants.

Finally the mustang came into sight. Jason and Hazel dumped their weapons in the trunk and fell into the back seat. Percy tossed Leo the car keys and within minutes they were on the road again. Like they were perfectly normal travelers who hadn't just destroyed an entire nest of vampires.

"So are we getting to the motel tonight or are we sleeping in the car?" Leo asked after a few minutes of silence.

"The tents are in the back," Hazel offered. Jason grimaced.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting a little tired of sleeping on the ground, I wouldn't mind a motel." Percy nodded. "Same here."

"Good," Leo said, "Because there's one now." He jerked the wheel of the mustang to the right and they pulled into the parking lot of a tiny motel that was seriously in need of a paint job.

Jason got out of the car. "I'll go check us in."

Within minutes he had returned with a key card and the four of them grabbed their bags from the trunk before hauling themselves to the very last door on the right. Jason opened it and Leo flicked on the lights to reveal two double beds and two couches sitting against the far wall. Before an argument could ensue, Hazel dropped her bag on the bed farthest from the door and said: "Dibs, you guys can flip for the other bed. But I'm the girl, I get priority."

"Oh, you're gonna play the gender card now?" Leo asked grinning. Jason raised a hand, "Don't worry, I'll sleep on the couch."

"Good, because I'm gonna go take a shower, and when I get out, I want all of you in bed, lights off and no talking. Understood?" The twinkle in her eyes revealed that she wasn't being serious. The boys grinned at her and shook their heads.

However when Hazel got out of the bathroom, she found all of them sound asleep anyway.

Ω

"Hey Hazel check the map again will you? That diner's gotta be around here somewhere, I'm starving!"

Hazel rolled her eyes at the front seat but opened the map again. Percy was passed out next to her and Jason was driving.

"You're always hungry Leo," she muttered reaching over the seat and batting him on the head.

"Hey I am not, but I need a lot of food to maintain this gorgeous bod, or have you forgotten how much energy we need?"

Hazel smoothed the map out on her knees grinning and ignored that last statement. He did have a point.

Over the past two years Jason, Percy, Leo and Hazel had traveled the country tracking down the monsters that were a result of the giant war. There had been far more then she had expected and sometimes she wanted to give up, but she was so thankful she had the three boys with her to keep her going. What she had said two years ago around the funeral pyres was more true now then it had ever been before. They were a family and where one went, the others followed.

Throughout the last twenty four months, they had killed more monsters then they ever had before and their individual powers had gotten infinitely stronger, when the four of them fought together and used them, they were unstoppable.

They had also used the time to heal. Hazel knew that they would never completely get over the deaths of Annabeth, Frank, Piper and Nico, but they had also healed as completely as was possible, and where grief and sadness had once been dominant, happiness friendship and family were what bound the them together now.

The four checked in with Chiron every so often but they hadn't been back to camp yet. And Hazel wasn't sure if she wanted to.

Hazel wasn't sure if the others would admit it, but she had grown to love life on the road. They had also learned that not all the monsters they fought were Grecian, which had opened up their perspectives to another part of the supernatural.

Along with your garden variety monsters, they had encountered cross roads demons, wendingos and djinns. The only thing they had in common was that they were both bizarre and nasty.

Between all that they had brushed up on their fighting, and now the four of them were downright deadly. Hazel smiled as she reminisced, while their time away from camp had been hard, she wouldn't change it for the world. They'd grown up a lot and now at eighteen and nineteen years of age, they were ready for life on their own.

"In the next ten kilometres, the diner should be on the right," she said looking up from the map.

"Good," Jason said from behind the wheel, "because I'm pretty sure Valdez here is gonna burst into flames if that growling in his stomach gets any louder."

Hazel covered her mouth to keep her laughter in, and cast a quick glance at Percy. The son of Poseidon was still out cold.

"Hey man, you weren't complaining about my fire skills when I saved your ass with those Cyclopes in Detroit!" Leo shot back.

Hazel tuned out their bantering and looked out the window, sighing contentedly. This wasn't the life she had imagined for herself after the giant war, but the death of Frank had changed her so much that she couldn't imagine life any other way. She had still been practically a child when they went to war, now she was a woman...a woman with three badass brothers who hunted monsters.

There were times when she still missed Frank, but they hadn't by any means been soul mates. She had been too young to understand what that meant, and now the idea of hooking up wasn't really a priority for her.

"There it is!" Leo yelled pointing out the window. To the right side of the road just off of the freeway was a old style country diner, complete with shutters and red and white checkered curtains. It's sign simply read: "Old West Diner.

Jason turned the wheel to the right, and pulled the Mustang into a spot to the left of the front door right next to a black 1967 Chevy impala.

"Hey check out that ride," Leo whistled as he climbed out of the front seat and looked at the car next to them. "What I would do to get my hands on that baby!"

Hazel rolled her eyes as she shut the car door. "For god's sakes Valdez it's a car." She whacked him upside the head.

"Hey!" He said rubbing the spot, and glaring at her. "It's a sweet looking ride!" Hazel did have to agree with him though.

"Yeah, it's nice," Jason said looking the impala over, "but it's not as nice as ours."

He banged on the hood of the mustang jolting Percy awake.

"Yo, Jackson, you gonna sleep all day? Let's go!" Percy climbed out of the back seat and sent a glare in his friend's direction. His hair was a mess. Hazel sighed and whipped out a comb from her jeans pocket.

Before Percy could protest, she leaned over and started to comb his hair.

"Hey what are you doing?" He asked leaning away from her. Hazel gave him a look, "what does it look like? I'm making sure you look at least halfway decent, just because we live on the road doesn't mean we need to look it."

Jason and Leo gave each other a knowing look, they knew they would be next if they stuck around.

"Alright, alright, I'm good, can we get something to eat now?" Percy asked. Hazel sighed and put the comb away.

"Fine, you guys go get a table, I'll be right in."

The boys nodded and walked into the diner. Hazel opened the door and tossed try comb into the back she kept in the back seat before closing the door and leaning against the side of the Mustang. She glanced down at the celestial bronze knife that was strapped to her right thigh. She'd been carrying it around since they had left camp. It wasn't Katoptris anymore, she had sharpened its point to a razor edge, and the grip now fit her hand like it was made for her. She had summoned some bronze to reinforce the blade and now it was a deadly weapon, not the pretty mirror Helen had used it for.

She sighed, life on the road had been great, they didn't have to worry about the gods appearing to them, or any major quests. In fact, since the fall of the giants, the gods had gone strangely quiet.

_And good riddance_ she thought.

Ω

"I'm telling you man, I gotta find the owner of that sweet looking ride." Sam glanced up from his food to see his brother looking out the window at the car parked next to theirs. He had to admit it was impressive.

The fire engine red 1964 ford mustang gleamed in the sunlight and made the impala look small in comparison. But he didn't say that.

"Would you forget about the car and eat? We gotta get back on the road soon." Dean stared at the car for another minute before digging into his burger.

The small bell above the door jingled and Sam glanced up absently as three guys walked in. They looked about nineteen, twenty and shouldn't have drown his attention, but they had, as well as the attention of half the diner.

The one in the lead had jet black hair, and eyes as green as Dean's, but Sam could tell from a second glance, that this kid was anything but normal. It was almost as if an ocean breeze had blown into the restaurant.

Sam glanced at the two guys with him and got the same feeling. The blonde guy had this energy about him that all but crackled with electricity, and his sky blue eyes flashed every time he looked around. The third guy was tan and about the same height as the other two. He had oily black hair, was wearing a leather jacket and had a tool belt around his waist, the only thing that was missing was a sign on his shirt that read grease monkey. But despite the mischievous look in his black eyes he was just as imposing as the other two.

They looked around carefully and exchanged a glance between the three of them before sitting down at a table next to Sam and Dean.

Something about the way they looked at each other made Sam uneasy, maybe it was because it was the exact same way he and Dean looked at each other when they were assessing the pros and cons of a situation.

Deciding that these guys would bear watching, Sam continued eating his food and looking at them out of the corner of his eye.

Suddenly the door jangled again and Sam heard his brother blow out a breath, before smacking him on the arm.

"Dude."

Dean was speechless. He had looked up from his food when the door opened again and was struck by a pair of eyes that had the appearance of melting chocolate.

A young woman had stepped over the threshold of the diner door and was looking around the room carefully. She looked in her late teens early twenties, and Dean could tell by her hair and light hazelnut complexion that she was mixed. Black and brown curls bounced around her shoulders and hung down her back. She was wearing skinny jeans and a white tank top that only highlighted her golden complexion. She had on knee high black hiking boots and a hunting knife was strapped to her right thigh. Around her neck hung a long golden necklace with what looked like a Greek symbol hanging from it.

She observed the diner, her expression cool as ice. The guys at the table next to them looked up and smiled at her.

Who wouldn't be? Dean thought, she was freaking gorgeous. And at least half the diner must have thought so because Dean could see the other guys in the establishment had the exact same expressions on their faces that he had. Even Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Damn," he said giving her the once over. Suddenly the Hispanic looking guy at the table next to them called out:

"Hey Hazel, over here."

The girl called Hazel looked over at him and an expression that looked curiously like relief crossed her beautiful face. She walked quickly over to their table and slid into the last available seat.

"Close your mouth Dean," Sam told him when he realized his brother was staring. Dean blinked as if coming out of a trance. He looked at his brother.

"Did you see her?" He asked in a hushed voice. Sam shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Of course I saw her, the whole damn diner saw her," he hissed "now stop staring before she notices."

Dean didn't hear the last part, he had gone back to ogling. But now Sam was curious too. The girl was obviously with the three guys, and he didn't know why but something about the four of them just seemed...off.

They didn't look older then twenty one, but it was obvious that they were on their own. Sam resumed watching them quietly.

He was so focused that when the blonde dude began talking, Sam flinched and banged his knee on the table leg.

He had reached out and tapped the arm of a waitress who was passing by their table.

"Excuse me, but do you have today's paper?" He asked smoothly, smiling at her. The waitress stared at him for a full ten seconds before blinking, then she nodded and smiling at him hurried back to the counter where she began whispering behind her hands to her coworker.

Sam had to suppress the urge to laugh. Why did that remind him of Dean?

"Dude, you've gotta stop doing that," the Hispanic guy said. "You're making Percy and me look bad." The blonde looked confused.

"Do what? I just asked her for the paper," he said. His friend rolled his eyes. "Come on Jason, you just used your stud charm on her."

"What no I didn't!"

"Yes you did."

"Guys." Dean's new love interest had broken in. "Why don't we just order, Leo would you pass me a menu?"

"Sure Hazel," the Hispanic dude, known as Leo passed her one of the menus, and she opened it and began to peruse.

Sam looked over at his brother to find he was still staring at the girl. God, he needed to help Dean work on his subtlety. Dean noticed his look and scoffed because he knew what Sam was going to say.

"Oh come on, you were looking at her too," he hissed. Sam shook his head, "No, I was looking at them, because something about those four doesn't seem right."

"What do you mean, they look around your age Sammy. What's the problem?"

Sam shook his head frustrated, he couldn't explain it.

"Do you think their demons?" Sam shook his head again. "No, I'm pretty sure their not demons."

"Well then maybe you're just being paranoid, as usual." With that Dean returned to chowing down on his pie.

Sam rolled his eyes but continued watching the foursome from across the room.

Ω

Hazel took a bite of her sandwich, not really tasting it. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. As soon as she had stepped in the diner door, she felt as if a spotlight had suddenly turned on, and a neon sign had appeared above her head with the words: please look at me, flashing in bright colours.

She knew she was being ridiculous, but she couldn't help but glance over her shoulder every so often. She was getting so nervous that she didn't notice when the silverware on the table began to vibrate.

Jason, Percy and Leo who had been scanning the newspaper that the waitress brought looked up at her at the same time.

"Are you alright Hazel?" Percy asked looking at her concerned. Hazel shook her head absently.

"You guys are going to think I'm crazy," she began. Leo dipped a French fry in ketchup and popped it into his mouth before grinning at her.

"Baby, we're demigods, with us, crazy is normal." Jason tossed him a look before giving Hazel his full attention.

"What's going on?" He asked her. Over the past two years they had learned not to question Hazel's instincts on anything because they were always right. Hazel stared down at her food.

"I just can't seem to shake the feeling that we're being watched," she confessed rubbing her hands together.

Jason did a quick scan of the room without even moving his head, and Hazel shook her own, feeling slightly impressed. She Percy and Jason were all the children of major gods, but it still amazed her, that Jason could be so aware of his surroundings all the time, even when they were looking for a job.

"You're right," he said, "we are being watched." That made the rest of them sit up and take notice.

"Where?" Percy asked quietly.

"The booth by the window right by the door to the right," Jason replied. Percy did a quick scan of the room before looking back at Hazel.

"There are two guys at that booth," he stated. Hazel frowned nervously.

"Are they both looking over here?" She asked.

"Yeah."

Leo began to laugh quietly causing all of them to look at him. "What's with you?" Jason asked.

"That explains it. They're checking you out Hazel." He casually popped a fry into his mouth and grinned at her impishly. Hazel was speechless, not only had that thought not occurred to her, it had never occurred to her in the past two years.

"He is not," was the best answer she could come up with. Leo smirked and raised an eyebrow at her in that knowing look that made Hazel want to smack him.

"Why wouldn't he be? You're hot, it's perfectly normal, in fact half the diner looked up when you walked in." He kept casually eating food. Hazel's cheeks were burning and Jason and Percy were snorting with laughter.

She took a deep breath and picked up her sandwich again feeling foolish and took a frustrated bite.

"Never mind, forget I said anything," she muttered. Jason coughed into his water and picked the newspaper up again.

"Alright so are we gonna look for a job or sit here counting how many guys have checked out Hazel? Cuz we could be here for a while if we do that."

Hazel's hands tightened into fists. She wasn't really angry though. Gods, these guys could be frustrating sometimes. Then she smiled relaxing completely, before reaching into the pocket of her jeans and pulling a pen out.

"Alright, let's find a monster to waste." Leo wiped his hands on his napkin.

"Now you're talking," he said pushing his empty plate away.

Jason spread the paper out on the table and the four of them went to work. Course they could've used cellphones and the internet, but demigods and technology didn't really mix.

For the next half hour they poured through the pages looking for anything suspicious. Every search turned up nil until Leo suddenly stabbed a section of the paper with his finger.

"Here!" he exclaimed. His three friends leaned forward. "What is it?" Percy asked. Leo cleared his throat.

"Just outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana, a little place called Silver Creek. All the girls have been disappearing from their beds in the middle of the night. Between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, and all of them unmarried, inexperienced."

He waggled his eyebrows at them, "I don't think I need to explain what that means." Jason coughed and took up the reading.

"Police have no new leads, there's always no sign of a struggle, no blood, nothing, it's like they vanished into thin air." He stopped reading and closed the paper. "Sounds like a monster, you guys ready?"

Leo slapped the table and grinned. "Born ready."

"Alright, let's get the bill and get out of here," Percy said raising his hand to get the attention of the waitress.

All of a sudden, a young man passing by their table with a full glass of water in his hand, knocked against Percy's raised arm and tipped the entire contents of it onto their table. Most of it landed on the empty plates and table cloth, but some of it splashed onto the demigods. It splattered the front of Hazel's tank top with water droplets.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, are you guys alright?" The young man asked sounding extremely apologetic.

Leo jumped up and grabbed some napkins. "Don't worry about it man," Jason said calming waving off his apology. "Could've happened to anyone."

Hazel, still somewhat in shock from the shower she had gotten gave the young man a bright smile indicating that no harm had been done.

Jason Percy and Leo focused on wiping up the table, and Hazel took one of the napkins and wiped the water off her arms.

The young man picked up the water glass and cleaned up the water that had spilled on the floor.

"Sam, what have you done now?" asked a deeper voice. Hazel, who had stood up to wipe the edges of the table clear of the water, turned to face a pair of eyes even greener then Percy's.

She was looking up into the face of an American Adonis. Ok maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but gods of Olympus he was good looking.

The young man she was facing looked a few years older then her. He had sandy brown hair, and a playful smile on his face. He was a couple inches taller then her, and while he was wearing a leather jacket that looked almost too big for him and somewhat baggy clothing, she could tell he was all muscle.

Thank the GODS for the diplomacy lessons she had gotten from Piper, because they enabled her to keep from blushing.

"Are you alright?" He asked. At the sound of his voice Hazel had to keep from shivering. It was like hot tea and honey, and she had to rub her arms to keep the goosebumps from rising on them.

Yet despite all that she was astonished that she managed to keep her tone steady and body language neutral when she spoke again.

"I'm alright, thank you, no harm done." By this time Jason and Percy had cleaned up the table and the waitresses had come over and began to clear the dishes.

The young man who had been cleaning up the mess on the floor straightened up and smiled sheepishly at the four of them.

"Sorry about that," he said again. Percy gave him a cool smile. "It's alright man, no harm no foul, we were just getting ready to leave anyway."

"Come on Sam," other man said. He reached over and grabbed Sam's arm hauling him to to his feet. He cast one more smile over his shoulder at Hazel before dragging Sam back to the booth by the window.

Hazel blew out a breathe before turning back to her friends. Jason had just handed some bills to the waitress who smiled at him far more then was necessary.

"Let's get out of here guys," he said motioning with his head towards the door. As they walked out of the diner, Hazel had to fight the urge to look over her shoulder at the booth behind her, they already had to pass by them, that would be enough.

However, as she was the last one following the boys, she heard something from their booth that made her frown.

"What the hell was that Sam?" The older one asked. Sam shrugged, "I was taking care of business, Dean," he replied.

Hazel's brow furrowed and she quickened her pace out of the restaurant. Sam and Dean...she would have to remember those names. Especially Dean.

Leo grinned and threw an arm around her shoulder as soon as they were outside. "You want me to go back in there and get his number for you Hazel?"

Jason snorted with laughter as he unlocked the mustang. Hazel ducked out from under Leo's arm.

"Shut up Valdez." Leo's impish grin grew wider.

"Are you sure, cuz you looked like you wanted to get to know him a WHOLE lot better."

By this time Hazel's cheeks were burning. Percy, sensing her discomfort, tossed her the keys.

"Why don't you drive for a while Hazel? I want to see if I can catch up on the rest of my nap that Grace here woke me up from."

"Please, if I hadn't woken you, you would've slept the whole damn week away," Jason responded grinning.

Leo opened the passenger door. "Fine, then if you two are gonna go into hibernation in the back, then I'll ride shot gun with Levesque. My charm will keep her awake."

Hazel muttered a curse under her breath in French. She didn't speak it very often, but she and Piper had been fluent and sometimes when they had wanted to keep a secret from their boyfriends they would whisper to each other in the language.

Gods, she missed her.

Hazel opened the driver door and slid into the front seat. Leo sat down next her, and Jason and Percy bundled themselves up with their pillows in the back. Leo grabbed the map from the back seat.

"We have a couple more hours till we reach the state crossing line into Indiana and there should be a motel about fifteen kilometres in," he informed her.

"Good," Hazel put the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. She backed the car out of the space and floored it out of the diner parking lot, eager to be away from it and the strange events that had happened. She was unaware of the fact, that from the diner window she had two observers.

Ω

"Sam what the hell were you thinking?" Dean asked again as the two of them watched the Mustang peel out of the parking lot.

"I was following up on a hunch," Sam replied calmly. "Something about those guys didn't seem right to me. I wanted to make sure they weren't monsters." Dean threw up his hands.

"Well you succeeded in making yourself look like an absolute idiot, by dumping holy water all over them. And did you have to dump it on the girl too?" Sam rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry I interrupted you writing your wedding vows, but you should be thanking me."

"For what?!"

"You got to at least say something to her, and look smooth doing it unlike me."

"Sam you couldn't be smooth if your life depended on it." Sam sighed and shook his head.

"So oh stealthy one, did you satisfy your curiosity? They're obviously not demons. I knew it anyway, that girl was way too hot to be a demon," Dean said taking a sip of his coffee.

"Since when did being attractive guarantee humanity?" Sam asked bewildered. Dean shrugged his shoulders and grinned at his little brother.

"Look at us." Sam threw up his hands. "I swear to god you logic is gonna be the death of me," he grumbled.

"Aw lighten up Sammy, so they weren't monsters, are you that eager for a hunt?" Sam rubbed his hands together and didn't answer.

"Come on, something will come up soon," Dean reassured him. Suddenly the cell phone that he had put next to his plate went nuts. Dean picked it up and checked the caller ID before flipping it open.

"Hey Bobby what's up?" He asked. Dean listened carefully for a few minutes while Sam casually picked at what was left on his plate.

"Alright, thanks Bobby, we'll check it out." He hung up and flipped the phone closed.

"Ok Sammy, looks like your prayers have been answered," Dean said sliding the phone back into his pocket. He pulled out his wallet and tossed some bills on the table.

"Oh yeah?" Sam asked, "Bobby got a case for us?"

"Yeah, and we gotta leave right away." Sam got up and retrieved his jacket from the hook outside the booth.

"Where are we going this time?" He asked as they walked out of the diner. Dean unlocked the impala.

"Fort Wayne, Indiana. A little town called Silver Creek."

Ω

**Hey guys, so I just wanted to make a few things clear about this chapter. I had to tweak the timeline to make the demigods a bit older and the Winchesters a bit younger. So Percy, Jason Leo and Sam, are all nineteen, Dean is twenty two soon to be twenty three and Hazel is eighteen soon to be nineteen in case you guys were worried about ages. **

**One last thing, the reason that Dean is so attracted to Hazel is because she looks almost exactly like his ex girlfriend Cassie. The only difference is the age. For those of you who don't remember who Cassie is I suggest you go look up her picture. In my opinion she's gorgeous and I decided that Hazel would be a good fit to be her double. **

**Also, if you haven't been able to guess by now, this story will be told from the perspective of Hazel. **

**Don't worry, the six of them will meet soon enough, probably in the next chapter for those who are getting antsy from the wait. I will try to have chapter 3 out sometime next week. **

**Happy reading everyone!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Within a few hours, Hazel had driven the mustang across the state line into Indiana. By this time it was getting late, and the sun had long since set. They had changed copilots this time, and now Percy was sitting beside her. Leo was passed out in the back seat and Jason was also in the throes of slumber. Percy glanced behind him at their two hibernating friends.  
>"You would think all those guys do is sleep," he commented turning back to look out the windshield and tossing a grin at her.<br>"Hey you were passed out pretty hard a while ago yourself Seaweed Brain," Hazel said in a teasing tone. Then her smile froze as she realized what she had just said and remembered the only person who had been allowed to call Percy that. The guilt came on pretty fast then.  
>"Gods, Percy, I'm sorry," she said apologetically. Percy frowned at her. "Why Hazel? Contrary to popular belief I actually liked when Annabeth called me that." He said her name without a hint of sadness and Hazel looked at him curiously.<br>"No one calls me it anymore and I kinda miss hearing it. So as far as I'm concerned, you are the only one who is allowed to call me that now."  
>Hazel breathed a small sigh of relief. Percy scratched the side of his chin like he was thinking.<br>"After all, it's not like Grace or Valdez would call me that any way." Hazel allowed herself to laugh. After that, silence filled the front seat of the mustang for a while and Hazel searched for the right thing to say.  
>"Do you still think about her?" She asked quietly, knowing Percy would understand. The son of Poseidon nodded.<br>"Everyday. But she died a hero, and knowing she's in Elysium with our other friends makes it a lot easier."  
>Hazel nodded, his logic made sense.<br>"Do you still think about Frank?" Percy asked hesitantly. Hazel gave him a sad smile. "Every day, just like you, and I'm willing to bet money that Jason still thinks about Piper. But we've healed as much as we're going to. And when we eventually get to Elysium, we'll see them again."  
>"What if one of them tries for rebirth though?" Percy asked. He sounded a little nervous and Hazel could tell that this was something that had been on his mind for a while.<br>"They won't," she said confidently, "at least not until we all join them. Then the eight of us can hopefully be reborn into a different life and go back to fighting monsters."  
>"Hey we do that for a living right now," Percy said, his familiar grin coming back to his face.<br>Hazel returned his smile.  
>"So what kind of monster do you think we're hunting this time?" Percy asked changing the subject. Hazel mused for a minute.<br>"Well, Leo said that all the girls who had been kidnapped were virgins right? There's a lot of lore about monsters kidnapping virgins, something about their physical and emotional purity or some junk like that. Tomorrow after we get settled in we should go to the library to do some research."  
>Percy shifted in his seat. He looked like he was working himself up for something.<br>"Hazel since this monster only goes after girls between fourteen and eighteen years of age, maybe you should let us handle this one."  
>Hazel looked at Percy with one of her eyebrows raised. He looked concerned and she wanted to reassure him.<br>"Percy, this monster probably only goes after girls in that age range because those girls haven't lived long enough to have any experience," she explained. Percy didn't look satisfied.  
>"Don't worry, there's no way this monster is going to come after me," she said confidently. It was more than confidence though. She <em>knew <em>beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wouldn't be on this monster's hit list.  
>Percy looked confused for a moment, "How can you be so sure?" he asked. Suddenly his face cleared in understanding and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.<br>"You mean you're not-" he didn't finish, it was just too odd thinking of her like that.  
>Hazel rolled her eyes. "Come on Percy, we're all adults here." Percy ran a hand through his hair, he was beginning to look exceedingly uncomfortable.<br>"Who?" He asked almost as if he didn't want to know. Hazel raised an eyebrow at him.  
>"Who do you think?" Percy wasn't normally a blusher, but right now his cheeks were turning a nice shade of pink.<br>"You and Zhang...?" He didn't finish.  
>"Gods, Percy, well it obviously wasn't you," Hazel sighed. She was a little glad though that they were the only two awake, it just made things a little less awkward.<br>Percy rubbed his hands together. The color on his cheeks was fading somewhat but he still looked way out of his depth.  
>"After all you don't expect me to believe that you and Annabeth never-"<br>"No!" Percy exclaimed raising his voice. Hazel levelled him with a look and he squirmed under her gaze.  
>"Well..." Then he sputtered, "That's beside the point!"<br>Hazel tossed back her head and laughed. She had learned in the past two years of living with the guys that there was no such thing as privacy, so she was pretty much an open book.  
>"Look, Percy my point is, you don't need to worry about me. In fact, I'm willing to bet money that you don't need to worry about any of us."<br>Percy sighed, but looked pacified somewhat.  
>"Alright," he said.<br>The car went quiet again. Then Percy sat up straight, he turned to Hazel and she could see a question on his face.  
>"You haven't heard from your dad by any chance have you?" He asked. Hazel frowned. They hadn't talked about their parents in a while.<br>"No, why? Have you talked to Poseidon?" She asked. Percy shook his head.  
>"It's just...we haven't heard from the gods in a while. I wonder what they would think of us going rogue."<br>Hazel didn't answer. The truth was she had been thinking the same thing. Even though, it made their lives a lot less complicated, not hearing from the Olympians for that length of time was odd. Especially since they had left camp over two years ago. Hazel had even stopped dreaming, which for a demigod was strange. They were plagued by dreams.  
>"I'm sure if anything was seriously wrong, they would let us know," she decided. "Besides, it's not like they don't know where we are, they can talk to us any time they want to."<br>"Yeah I guess you're right," Percy said, but he didn't sound convinced. They lapsed into silence again before Percy looked up from the map on his lap and almost shouted: "There it is!"

Hazel slammed on the brakes but miraculously the two demigods in the backseat didn't wake up.

Percy was pointing to a little motel sitting on the side of the road. It was even sorrier looking then the one from the night before. The paint was peeling, it had been white once but now it was an ugly shade of beige. It was a squat building with no second floor and in all honesty, looked like it had gone through a zombie apocalypse. The parking lot was also full of potholes.

There was a rundown sign out front where half the letters needed to be repainted and there was a neon light that was flashing hot pink of all things at random intervals. Hazel could just barely make out the words: Comfort Inn on it.

_Yeah right, _she thought.

Carefully she pulled the car into the lot and steered it carefully around the potholes until she was able to park safely.

Jason and Leo hadn't even stirred in the backseat. Percy winked at Hazel before reaching over and leaning on the horn as hard as he could. A blaring sound filled the empty parking lot.

The two of them shot, eyes wide, hair all askew, looking for a fight. When they realized the source of the noise, Jason glared at Percy and whipped him over the head with his pillow.

"What was that for Jackson?" Leo grumbled. His hair looked even more wild than usual, as if he had been electrocuted by faulty wiring.

"Sorry Valdez, collateral damage, that was payback for earlier today at the diner," Percy said grinning.

Before an argument could break out, Hazel pulled the keys from the ignition, and turned to face her three best friends.

"Ok guys, let's go check in and then get some rest. We've got a lot of work to do."

Ω

It was a couple hours later that a black Chevy impala, pulled into the lot of the motel and parked on the opposite side.

Sam and Dean were feeling tired, so naturally they didn't even see the mustang. They just grabbed their bags, and checked themselves in before heading to their room.

Sam dumped his bag on the bed and opened up his laptop to do some quick research before hitting the sack.

"So what type of people was this monster kidnapping?" he asked. There was a moment of silence from the bathroom and then the door opened. Dean leaned against the door frame, toothbrush in his hand.

"I don't know, all Bobby said was that they were young girls between fourteen and eighteen. All of them unmarried, some for obvious reasons. And they all disappeared from their beds in the middle of the night, no sign of a struggle, nothing."

"You think maybe they were drugged?" Sam asked. Dean rubbed the side of his face, thinking, his eyes drifted.

"Maybe, Bobby said so far that there haven't been any witnesses." Sam sighed and glanced back at the computer.

"That's going to make this more difficult," he mused. "We should get to the library tomorrow and do some research. How many did Bobby say have been kidnapped so far?"

"Thirteen," Dean replied.

Sam closed the laptop and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head. "The only thing I can think of is that this probably isn't a vengeful spirit."

Dean frowned, "How do you know?"

Sam folded his hands across his stomach. "Well is this was a vengeful spirit, the scope of those kidnapped would be a bit broader, and normally spirits don't kidnap, they usually kill on sight. Plus spirits are usually tied to an object, for example a house. So far I haven't found any signs of activity or any lore connected with houses in town."

"Ok, so what do you think it is?" His older brother asked.

"My guess is that it's probably a wendigo or a djinn, they're known for kidnapping people and feeding off of them, or I suppose it could be vampires."

Dean winced, he hated vampires. "Ok, but then why only girls, and why only between fourteen and eighteen?"

Sam sighed and went to go lay down on his bed.

"That, I really don't know. But I suggest we hit the sack and get started on it tomorrow."

Ω

Hazel opened her eyes and looked around forgetting for a moment where she was. The beds curtains and draperies looked completely unfamiliar.  
>Then she saw Leo's familiar lump buried under the blankets on the bed next to her and she smiled, relaxing.<br>Pushing aside her blanket she got to her feet. Her long night shirt fell to just below her knees and she shivered slightly when her bare feet hit the cold floor.  
>Jason and Percy were still passed out on the couches. Jason's arm was thrown over his face and Percy looked like he was in hibernation the way she could only make out the top of his head and the tufts of his jet black hair against the stark white of the pillow.<br>Hazel covered her mouth to hide a smile. She pulled the blanket back over the bed and walked across the room to the bathroom. It was this ugly shade of yellow that the contractors must have thought the inhabitants of the room would find pleasing, all the color did was annoy her when she was only half awake.

She closed the door and started digging in one of her smaller bags to find her brush. She was sure her hair looked like a mess. The long black and brown locks were in tight curls and were incredibly difficult to manage, especially after completing a job. It usually took her an hour to tame the mane. But as much trouble as her hair gave her, Hazel would never cut it in a million years. In her opinion it was her best feature.  
>She frowned when she didn't find the brush in the bag, then remembering that she had left it in the mirrored medicine cabinet the night before, Hazel opened the reflecting door to retrieve it.<br>She had no sooner taken up the brush and shut the door when she saw the reflection of a man standing a few feet behind her.  
>Over the past two years, Hazel had built a reputation based on steely nerves. They had helped her in some tough jobs, but in that minute, her nerve almost broke.<br>She gave a small squeal and dropped the brush which clattered loudly into the sink. She hoped the guys hadn't heard that.  
>"Who...who are you?" She stammered. The man was tan and powerfully built. He was dressed in a dark suit that was perfectly tailored, and his black hair was neatly trimmed. His obsidian eyes and strong jawline were somewhat familiar and his dark good looks struck a memory within her. He observed her coolly, not even noticing her shock at seeing him. Then Hazel blinked, she hadn't see him for a while, but she knew exactly who this man, or rather god, was.<br>"Dad?" She asked incredulously.  
>At her words, Pluto's face split into a smile as he looked at her. "My, you've grown up."<br>Hazel looked at her father warily. Whenever he had appeared to her in the past it had never been for a good reason, almost always to warn her about something. In fact whenever a god appeared to any of their children, bad things were usually about to happen.  
>"What are you doing here?" She asked, "Why show yourself to me now?"<br>The god sighed and to Hazel's surprise he looked a little ashamed. "I've been keeping an eye on you for the past two years, but Nico insisted that it wasn't enough. Ever since you and the other demigods disappeared off the map, Nico's been a little worried."  
>At the mention of her late brother's name, Hazel stiffened up like a board.<br>"He's with you? Is he alright? Why didn't he come?" She knew she was probably sounding ridiculous but she didn't care.  
>"I wanted him to," Pluto replied, "but he thought it might upset you further if he were to come and then have to leave again."<br>Hazel wanted to scream. She would have given her right arm to see her brother again, who cared how much it might have hurt her to say goodbye for a second time? But she also didn't want to draw the attention of her friends so with a great effort she clamped her lips shut.  
>Pluto looked at her carefully. "You're angry," he observed calmly. Hazel folded her arms across her chest.<br>_You think?_ She thought. But she didn't say that. It's one thing to think anything you want, it's another to say it to your dad who is in fact the kind of dead.  
>"Why are you here, dad?" She asked again, trying to keep the frustration from her voice.<br>"I am here on the request of Nico," Pluto replied. "You were going to figure it out eventually, but the monster you have come here to dispatch, it's like nothing you have ever fought before."  
>Hazel frowned. This was new. "You came here just to tell me that the monster I'm going to be fighting is more dangerous than usual?" She asked. Pluto folded his hands.<br>"Yes, and on request from Nico, but that's not all."  
>"It never is," Hazel muttered under her breath. Pluto raised an eyebrow at her but continued.<br>"Nico has informed me that he wishes to stay in Elysium, he doesn't want to try for rebirth, and he says he wants to wait for you and the rest of your friends to get here."  
>Against her will, Hazel felt her eyes begin to burn. She hadn't cried since they had burned the bodies two years ago, but knowing that her friends were in fact still there, still waiting for them was an enormous relief. She wanted to smile at how right Percy had been.<br>"However," Pluto went on, and Hazel turned serious again, "before that is to happen, against my better judgment Nico has decided that he wants to give you something."  
>Hazel's brow furrowed. "What is it?"<br>The air in Pluto's hand rippled and a small silver object appeared in his palm. Hazel looked at it closely and realized she had seen it before.  
>"That's Nico's ring," she said. Pluto nodded. He handed it to her and Hazel took it gingerly. She slipped it onto her ring finger and to her astonishment it immediately shrunk in size to fit her finger, the lines and curves on it became smoother, more graceful and elegant. More feminine. The skull embedded in its center remained except this time, the entire piece of jewelry went from silver to gold.<br>Hazel glanced up at her father. "What just happened?" She asked.  
>He smiled again, but this time his smile wasn't warm like it had been before, it was almost...scary.<br>"Dad, what's going on?" She asked, more urgently this time.  
>"You have accepted Nico's gift," The Lord of the Underworld replied. Hazel rapidly shook her head.<br>"No, this goes way beyond me just putting on a ring. What did you do?"  
>"Nothing, what I said was the truth. Nico has decided to give you his power. You now control the spirits of the dead."<br>Hazel stared at her dad like he had just announced that there were aliens and that they were working for him.  
>"What?" She barely managed to whisper. Pluto sighed.<br>"I wasn't sure how good of an idea this was but Nico insisted. He seemed adamant that you would need his power. He also insisted that he has no use for it seeing as how he wishes to stay in Elysium. But he didn't want that power to go to waste. He demanded that you be the one who should have it."  
>Hazel was staring at the ring in shock. "But I never wanted this," she said looking up at her father. "Nico and I were so much better as a team."<br>"Maybe so, but seeing as how that's no longer possible, Nico wanted you to be even more able to take care of yourself."  
>"But I don't even know how to use Nico's power," Hazel protested desperately. It wasn't entirely that she didn't want it, but Nico's power had always been a little intimidating.<br>Imagine going on a blind date and announcing "oh by the way, I can control the dead." Yeah that would kill the mood real fast.  
>"You're my daughter Hazel," Pluto replied almost gently, "yes you do." He rubbed his hands together.<br>"Now to my other purpose for coming. Like I said, the monster you will be facing is unlike any you have faced before.  
>Hazel was amazed that she still had the coherency to ask: "do you know what it is?"<p>

"It's a drakon," he replied and Hazel gripped the countertop tightly. She still remembered the ones they had fought in the giant war. By far her least favorite monster.

"So how do we stop it?" she asked.

Pluto gave her a sad smile and she knew what was coming. It something that all the gods had adhered to: never get too involved in their children's lives. For some reason it was taboo. Hazel didn't get it. If you were a parent, it didn't matter if you were immortal, you were supposed to protect your kids, not leave them to the mercy of fate. But that was something that the gods had been doing for thousands of years, it wasn't likely to change anytime soon.

She blinked as she realized that Pluto had started speaking. The god had started to pace the bathroom floor, (thankfully it was big enough for two), and he looked like he was getting sufficiently agitated. Hazel could tell something big was going down. Something really big.

"What's going on Dad? We leave camp and don't hear from the gods in over two years, and suddenly you show up in my bathroom and want to have a heart to heart?"

Pluto stopped pacing and looked at her. He then surprised Hazel by walking over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking her squarely in the eyes.

"Soon Hazel, very soon, you're going to meet some new comrades. And you're going to need them. The giants were not the only children of Gaea and Tartarus. An enemy is resurfacing, and when it comes, you and the demigods will need all the help you can get."

_Way to be specific, _she thought, even as she tried to swallow the lump of panic in her throat.

"What enemy?" She asked desperately, "We just got through with fighting the giants Dad, and we lost way too many people."

Her voice broke as she said this and she had to work for a minute to get it back before she was able to speak again.

"Now you're telling me that another enemy is about to make an appearance?" She ran her hands through her hair and began to pace the floor.

"How many wars do you want the demigods to fight?" she asked whirling back to face Pluto.

The god looked unruffled by her words and tone but he was thousands of years old, he had had a lot of time to practice patience. He lowered his arms from her shoulders.

"The demigods of Camp Half-blood and Camp Jupiter will not be involved in this war Hazel. As in the giant war, there will a select few half-bloods, namely you, Jason Grace, Leo Valdez and Percy Jackson. This is a war that involves the mortals.

If Hazel was shocked before, she was downright flabbergasted now. For a few minutes, she wasn't able to say anything.

Pluto glanced at his watch. "I need to leave, I've been away for too long already." Hazel blinked.

"Wait a minute, you show up here after two years, give me my dead brother's power, announce that we're on the verge of an impending war that's going to include mortals and then you want to leave?!"

Hazel was beyond livid. The past two years had been great, all they had to worry about was killing the next monster. There was nothing like an up and coming war to put a damper on that.

Pluto looked genuinely sorry. "Hazel if there were more that I could tell you then I would, but trust me when I say that you will be fighting alongside mortals in this war. And they aren't going to win this war without you. That's why I gave you Nico's power, when the time comes, you will be the one to turn the tides. You're far more powerful than you think you are. Trust yourself."

Hazel frowned, Chiron had said the exact same thing two years ago. She glanced down at the now gold skull ring on her right hand.

"But what about-" But when she looked up again, Pluto was gone.

So now she had to not only worry about an upcoming war, but the fact that if she did the wrong thing in that war, it could spell disaster.

Great. Just great.

Ω

The library was a small two floor building on the opposite side of town from the motel. It was a redbrick building occupied inside with wall to wall books. But it was dim, cramped and the books themselves were hopelessly out of order. It had taken the Winchesters over an hour to find books even remotely close to monster lore.

Dean slammed the book shut and tossed it back onto the table, startling Sam who had been carefully examining another book.

"Sammy, we've been at this for hours and it's turned up nothing. Can't we take a break?"

Sam sighed, sometimes he felt like the older brother, especially when Dean got like this.

He closed his own book and eyed his sibling. Dean was running his hand through his hair, the way he always did when he was frustrated.

"Ok," he said patiently, "let's look at what we know. Young girls have been kidnapped from their homes. Thirteen in the same town. There are always no eyewitness and it always happens at night. Maybe we should focus more on the fact that they were all virgins. That's got to have something to do with this."

Dean leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. Sam could tell he was frustrated. Dean was definitely a man of action, and sitting reading was not something he was accustomed to.

"Ok, but what?" he asked. Sam mirrored his brother's position. He had to admit, he felt frustrated too. They had been at this all morning and it had turned up nothing.

Just then he had an idea. "There's one source we haven't checked," he said slowly. Dean sat up again. "Yeah? What's that?"

Sam unzipped his back pack which was sitting in the chair next to him and rifled through it for a minute before pulling out an old worn spiral bound book. He set it on the table in front of Dean.

"Dad's journal. I have a feeling we should have come here in the first place." Dean grinned. "Now you're talking!" He opened it up and began to look through the pages. Sam pulled his chair closer and they went to work.

About fifteen minutes later, they hit the jackpot.

"Here it is Dean," Sam announced stabbing on of his fingers onto the page. The older Winchester sat forward in his chair. Sam looked around quickly before lowering his voice.

"Dad hasn't worked any cases involving the kidnapping of virgins, but he says that these girls are kidnapped because for some reason their blood is the purest of all mortals and that this blood is usually used to awaken or resuscitate a major monster."

"Whoa, whoa, so you're saying that whatever monster this is, is using these girls blood for some kind of ritual to wake an even deadlier monster?" Dean asked. Sam sighed and closed the journal.

"I don't know, but I think it's safe to say that this isn't going to be a normal job." Dean sat back in his chair again.

"No job is ever normal Sam," he said. His younger brother nodded. "I know but, I have a feeling if this monster is using the blood to awaken something, then it's going to make us wish for a spirit or a vampire."

"Excuse me?"

The boys whirled around to find the librarian standing behind them. She was a short lady about five feet high, glasses perched on the bridge of her beak like nose, a bird like voice and a crown of white hair above cloudy blue eyes.

"Did I happen to here you boys talking about the kidnappings?" She asked, nervously fingering the long strand pearls around her neck.

Sam and Dean exchanged glances. Sam spoke first.

"Yes, we're journalists, we travel the country reporting on mysterious disappearances," he told her smoothly. Dean suppressed a smile. When he wanted to, Sam was a very good liar.

The librarian pushed her glasses up onto her nose and looked in both directions as if making sure no one was around to hear them. She leaned closer to the boys.

"There's a building about fifteen minutes outside of town, an abandoned church. It's a fortress. The congregation had moved on years ago and the place has been abandoned ever since. No one ever goes near it, says it's haunted. But there had been a lot of theories going around that that is where they're keeping the girls."

The Winchesters exchanged glances before looking back at her. "What's the name of the church?" Dean asked.

"Holy Name of Mary," the librarian replied. "The police have been over the place with a fine tooth comb and found nothing. But every night between the hours of midnight and three am, there are horrible screeching noises and screams coming from that direction. They last for about three hours before it stops."

"How long has this been going on?" Sam asked. The librarian crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, trying to remember.

"About four months now, ever since the kidnappings first started. If I were you, I would take a look around the church. Its connected with this somehow, I know it."

Sam and Dean exchanged another look. That church would definitely bear a checking out.

"Thank you," Sam said. The librarian nodded and walked away.

"When do you want to go check out the church?" Sam asked, knowing what the answer would be right away.

"Tonight, all the bad things come out at night anyway."

Ω

"So Hazel, let's go over this again," Jason said.

Pluto's daughter sighed and ran her hands through her hair. As soon as her father had left, she had woken the guys up and told them what he had told her.

A couple hours later, after breakfast, Jason was making her retell it again. Leo and Percy were sitting on the edge of the bed. Their initial shock had worn off and now was replaced by a myriad of questions.

Hazel had told them everything, well almost everything. She had neglected to mention the little fact that she could now control the spirits of the dead. It just hadn't seemed like the right time. She didn't even know how to use her brother's power, despite the fact that Pluto said she did.

"He told me that this was a war that would include mortals," she said for what felt like the fiftieth time. "He also said that we would be involved in it and that we are going to meet some people soon who we will need to help defeat this new enemy."

Leo looked up from the transistor and gears he had been playing with. He had been surprisingly quiet this whole time which was very unlike him, and Hazel looked at him with concern.

"Are you alright Leo?" She asked. He licked his lips. "it's just, why have the gods gone so quiet over the past two years, and then suddenly you get a visit from your dad telling you about an impending war. It doesn't make any sense." Hazel sighed and folded her arms across her chest.

"Leo, it's not supposed to make sense. This whole thing has reached freak show weird. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with it all." As she said the last sentence, she threw up her hands and began to pace the room.

"Alright, let's just take a step back," Percy suggested. "Pluto told you that war was coming for the third time in our lives, right?" Hazel nodded.

"But he didn't say when, or how it would get started. He didn't even tell you when we would meet these people who were supposed to help us. For all we know it could be years from now."

_Yeah right, _everyone was thinking.

"So I think for right now, what we need to focus on is this job. The last thing we need to be worried about is wars and battles and anything else like that. We came here to work a job, so let's do that. This war will happen when it happens, let's kill this monster and find these kidnapped girls before it strikes again. Then we can focus on a war."

It wasn't much in the way of a pep talk, but no one could argue. Hazel put her hands behind her back and twisted the gold skull ring on her finger. She wanted to tell the guys about it, but somehow it didn't seem like the right time yet.

"Ok, Jason what did you find out about the case?" she asked absently. Jason cleared his throat and reached into his back pack, pulling out the day's paper which he spread on the table. The other three demigods gathered around

"Right….so the kidnappings have been happening during the last four months. They're always at night and there aren't any signs of a struggle."

"Do you think they were drugged?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," Jason replied. "But check this out."

He turned the page to reveal a picture of an enormous church. It looked like a fort. The spires must have been at least forty feet high. There was bell tower and a steeple. Stained glass windows adorned the side that they could see. Hazel could tell it had been beautiful in its day.

"What does this church have to do with the case Jason?" she asked.

"Every night since the kidnappings began, odd sounds have been coming from this church. Screaming and shrieking, howling, that kind of thing. The paper says the police have been over the place, but they haven't been able to find anything."

"Do you think they're connected?" Leo asked. "The abductions and the church I mean?"

"I don't know, but I do think we need to check this place out," Jason replied. The other three nodded.

"So when do you want to go?" Hazel asked.

"Tonight, it'll be a lot less likely that we'll be spotted under cover of darkness." Leo put away the toy he had been building.

"Good and that way, no one will see me running from the place screaming like a girl." He gave the others his famous impish grin and Hazel couldn't help but laugh.

"Come on, let's get to work," Percy said.

Ω

Later that night, the four demigods were hurrying around the motel room packing up, bringing whatever weapons they needed.

Hazel unzipped her overnight bag that she had been living out of for the past two years, and got a surprise. Instead of seeing Nico's sword perched atop her clothes like usual, another blade was lying next to it. It was identical the stygian iron one except this one was gold.

Hazel took her bag outside to the car and took out both blades. Their sheaths were identical but they were silver and gold just like the blades. When Hazel unsheathed them, she could see that they were identical in that the blades themselves were both outlined in silver and gold. There was still stygian iron on them but now it appeared as if it had been relegated to the middle of the blades.

_Another gift from dad, _Hazel thought. Without even thinking about it, she took both weapons and strapped them to her back. She tightened the cord of the dagger around her right thigh and took a deep breath.

Somehow she felt this job wouldn't be like the others. _Don't think like that Hazel, this is going to be simple. Get in, kill the monster, save the people and get out. _

Sure.

She returned to the room where Jason, Leo and Percy had just finished gearing up.

"Everybody ready?" Percy asked.

"I was born ready dude," Leo replied strapping his tool belt to his waist. Jason slung his backpack across his shoulders and tightened the straps.

Hazel grinned, looking around the room at her only surviving family. "Alright Fantastic Four, lets hit the road."

Ω

Dean pulled the impala off to the side of the road about a hundred yards from the church. He and Sam peered through the windshield at the structure. The librarian had been right, it was a fortress.

The full moon was flying high in the sky and lit up the whole grounds in its eerie silver glow. Sam cocked the fully loaded shot gun in his lap and glanced at his brother. Dean slid the two silver knives he always carried into his pocket.

"You ready?" Sam asked. Dean nodded.

"Yeah, let's go check it out." They got out of the car, Dean locked the impala and the two brothers started toward the church."

Ω

"Holy mother," Leo breathed as he stared at the building. "That thing is freaking _huge."_

The four demigods had ditched the car on the outskirts of town, thinking it would attract less attention if they just hitchhiked out there. Leo had placed a series of booby traps around it in case anyone got any ideas about stealing it.

There was a large abandoned tractor about fifty yards away from the church, indicating that they were in the heart of farming country. The moon was high overhead and despite the fact that she had been told this would be a dangerous monster, Hazel was in a good mood. Nighttime was her element, she thrived in it.

Jason peered out from behind one of the tractor wheels. "I say we head in the side door, the place looks abandoned anyway."

He had no sooner said the words, when a horrible screeching sound emitted from the church. Or rather it was coming from the bell tower.

The four whirled around to face the building again and caught sight of a monstrous winged creature, sitting with its claws embedded in the roof of the church. The screeching sound came again and Hazel realized that that must have been sound that the townspeople were hearing. Finally after unleashing its monstrous call a few more times, the creature took to the air.

It flew directly overhead and the four ducked down low to ground so they wouldn't be seen. Hazel caught a glimpse of enormous bat like wings, and as the creature flew beneath the moon, it blocked out almost all of its light. Even from far below, they felt the breeze the monster's wings gave off.

Within another few minutes it had flown out of sight towards the town.

The four demigods exchanged glances. Leo was the first to speak. "Right, so we're facing off against Dracula are we?"

"That must be the drakon Pluto told you about Hazel," Jason mused, "Although I don't remember any legends about them being winged."

"Unless there's more inside," Percy said.

"Way to be optimistic guys," Hazel muttered.

They glanced back at the church which was now empty and quiet. Then they exchanged glances. Leo looked down at the gears he had been playing with and suddenly had an idea.

"Alright people, let's rock and roll. Before I come to my senses that is."

Ω

**Alright guys, so there's chapter 3. I'm sorry, I know I said I would have them all meet in this chapter, but there was just too much information to cram into this one. Don't worry, I promise I will have them meet in the next chapter. I was not expecting this story to get so popular so fast, you guys have made my day, thanks for reading and reviewing, please continue to do so. Also, I've been getting questions in relation to the age changes. Like I said before, yes they are deliberate, and I did this because I thought it would be easier for the six to relate to each other if they were closer in age.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I will try to have the next one out sometime next week :)**

**Happy reading everyone! **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_Ok, I know that we're demigods, _Hazel thought as she Leo Percy and Jason dashed across the empty field toward the abandoned church heading for the side door. _But since when did we become ninjas too?_

The irony was that they looked exactly like ninjas. All of them were dressed in black jeans and shirts. Hazel was wearing a black tank top skinny jeans and her black knee high combat boots. Her black leather jacket was slung over her shoulders. All of them were carrying their weapons on their backs, sword hilts sticking up over their shoulders. Jason had put on a hat so as to cover his angel like blonde hair. The only thing with color between the four of them was Leo's tool belt and even that was a dull brown.

In short, they looked the human versions of the teenage mutant ninja turtles, minus the masks that is. Hazel would've laughed if the situation hadn't been so serious.

The four of them hurried to the wall and pressed their backs up against it, looking around for signs of movement.

A slight laugh from Percy drew the attention of the other three. "Something wrong?" Jason asked.

"Sorry, I just can't help but feel like we're about to invade the enemy camp here," he said, trying to suppress a grin. Jason rolled his eyes and yanked on the handle of the side door. The hinges creaked loudly in protest and he cringed as a high pitched screeching sound emitted.

Jason motioned them all inside before stepping in himself and pulling the door shut. Immediately they were engulfed in darkness.

"Anyone got a light?" Percy asked. Leo set his hand ablaze. Hazel and Jason exchanged glances.

"Normally Valdez I would say thanks, but why don't we use good old fashioned flashlights?" Hazel suggested. She reached into the back pack on Jason's back and pulled one out. "We don't want to burn the church down."

"Alright, but it might take care of our monster problem," Leo said as he put his hand out.

"Yeah and it might turn the victims extra crispy," Jason offered. Leo gave a disgruntled huff but said no more.

Hazel clicked on the torch. "Let there be light," she whispered.

The spotlight flashed around the room, revealing an enormous entryway. There were marble pillars stretching up to a ceiling seven feet high. The floor was black and white tiles, now crowded with dust, debris and cobwebs. There was an antique mahogany sign in desk at the back end of the foyer. A gold plated sign behind it read simply: "Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church."

The windows that looked out on the front of the property were boarded up and graffiti marked the white washed walls, indicating that the church had been abandoned for a while. There was a chaplain's office directly across the foyer in front of them, but the glass on the door had also been cracked and boarded up.

"This place must have been beautiful in its day," Hazel commented quietly as she and the boys looked around.

"Alright kids, tours over, now where do you think Dracula would keep teenage girls?" Leo asked rubbing his hands together.

"I'm more concerned about why he's kidnapping the girls," Hazel murmured as she shone the flashlight beam around. She looked up and happened to lock eyes with Percy as he came over to stand next to her.

"Why don't we check the sanctuary?" He asked gesturing to the solid oak doors behind him. The other three demigods looked where he was pointing and saw that both doors to the inner room had been yanked off their hinges.

Leo pulled on them and after a slight tugging period, the doors flew open. They were standing in the doorway of the biggest sanctuary Hazel had ever seen. The distance from the back doors to the front where the old altar stood was at least one hundred feet. Red carpets covered the floors although they looked somewhat brown from all the dust and decay. The mahogany pews were starting to rot away, but there must have been at least fifty of them. Halfway to the front the whole place opened up revealing a balcony and very high ceilings. On the ceilings were faded portraits of the saints and angels in various positions. There was a table at the front of the sanctuary just behind the altar on which stood the container where the bread had been kept as well as a golden goblet that held the ceremonial wine for communion. To the sides of the room there were the confessional boxes.

Jason gave a low whistle. "This place is incredible," he breathed. "I can't imagine what it would have been like in its heyday."

"Yeah, I'm not much for church," Percy commented as he looked around. "But even I would have come here."

Hazel slowly walked down the aisle toward the front where the altar was situated. The floors, though they were covered with carpet squeaked loudly as she walked over them. She didn't hesitate but walked quickly up the steps toward the pulpit. The boys followed her,  
>Hazel walked around behind the altar and noticed that a large book was sitting open on top of it. It was leather bound and the pages were etched in gold. The book wasn't written in English and anyone could tell that this was no bible.<br>She ran her fingers across one of the pages and marveled at how old it felt.  
>"Is that Greek?" Percy asked reading over her shoulder. Hazel nodded. "And Latin too from the looks of it," Jason noted looking over her other shoulder.<br>Leo began to list off some facts on his fingers. "So we have some kidnapped girls, a church that looks like it came straight out of the conjuring, and a voodoo book that's written in Greek and Latin. And this all means...what exactly?"  
>Hazel, Percy and Jason exchanged glances. "All I know is, nothing good," Jason said. "So what do we do now?" Percy asked.<br>Hazel glanced back at the book, something about its writing looked very familiar and she was itching to find out what it meant.

Ω

Dean checked his gun again, making sure it was fully loaded. He didn't know why, but as he and Sam made for the back of the church, he felt a little tense, especially after seeing that winged bastard on the roof.  
>Knowing you were up against a prehistoric monster that looked suspiciously like a dragon could be kind of intimidating.<br>So instead of employing the break the door down like a badass technique, he and Sam had headed for the basement door they had seen on the other side of the church. Breaking the door down like a badass would have to wait until after they had killed this monster.  
>He and Sam were armed to the teeth since they weren't sure what to expect. Silver knives loaded shotguns, holy water, salt, the works. Plus they were both carrying their backpacks with medical supplies in case the worst should happen.<br>After the Winchesters had skirted the basement stairs on the outside of the church, Sam grasped the door handle and gently pulled it open.  
>All the hinges needed an insane amount of grease because the door shrieked like a banshee as Sam pulled on it. Dean winced and the two of them hurried inside before someone, god forbid the monster heard them and came to investigate.<br>As soon as Sam pulled the door shut, they were in total darkness. Dean pulled his lighter from his pocked and flicked it on, forgetting up until that point that he had conveniently forgotten his flashlight in the car.  
>The two of them were standing in a basement so large that they couldn't see the end of it. Wooden pillars held up a low lying ceiling, from which hung cobwebs and dust listed aimlessly across the floor.<br>About sixty feet away, an old wooden staircase led the way up to the main floor of the church, but it looked like it was going to fall apart at any second.  
>The boys exchanged glances. "Dude this is straight out of nightmare on Elm Street," Dean noted looking around.<br>Sam snorted in agreement. "Right, why don't we head on up?" Slowly cautiously the brothers moved across the wood floor toward the stair case. The floor creaked beneath their feet betraying the unstable nature of the whole church. No wonder the death trap had a sign out front that read condemned.  
>Once they reached the foot of the stairs, Dean jerked his head for Sam to go up first and he would follow. Sam crossed his gun across his chest and hurried as quietly as he could up the stairs and out of sight.<br>Dean took one more look around the quiet basement before following Sam out of the basement.

Ω

The four demigods were stumped. They had been over the church, save the basement, aside from the sanctuary and the entryway as well as the church offices, the place was empty. No hidden room or secret compartment, no back staircase or trapdoor, nothing.  
>Hazel was frustrated. She liked straightforward jobs, none of this hide and seek crap. It was made even worse by the fact that her dad's warning was still hanging over her head, and every time she glanced down at the gold ring on her hand she cringed wondering when the time would come that she would have to use it.<br>The four of them met back in the sanctuary behind the altar. Hazel was still convinced that the book sitting on it had something to do with the disappearances. There were so many loose ends and she need the lynch pin to tie them all up, but it remained elusive. A quick glance around told her that the guys were frustrated too.  
>"Maybe we should try reading from the book," Leo suggested finally. Jason shook his head. "Bad idea, I know a book of incantations when I see one, if we read this thing aloud, we have no idea what the repercussions could be. We could bring the entire church down on us...or worse."<br>Hazel ran a hand through her hair. If Annabeth were there she would know exactly what to do. And Hazel was tired of trying to be like her friends. Annabeth had been a strategist, she always had a plan, and Hazel had usually been the one to help her execute it.  
>What would Annabeth do? Suddenly Hazel frowned. She knew the book was somehow the key, but Jason was afraid of what would happen if they read it aloud...but what if she didn't read it out loud?<br>Words were only dangerous if people were around to hear them right?  
>With that in mind, Hazel marched up to the altar and smoothed the pages down on each side.<br>"Um Hazel? What are you doing?" Leo asked nervously. Hazel was about to reply when suddenly she felt something.  
>"Someone's coming!" She hissed looking up from the book at her friends. They didn't even have time to draw their weapons.<br>"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Someone asked sounding more curious then angry. At the sound, Hazel stiffened up like a board. Where had she heard that voice before?  
>She and the boys looked up to see two figures walking toward them from a side door. Too late she realized they had forgotten to check every door in the sanctuary and cursed under her breath in Greek.<br>One was taller than the other, but not by much. From the looks of it, they were armed as much as the demigods. They were both holding shotguns in their hands and though they weren't pointed at the demigods, they were crossed across their chests ready to fire.  
>Hazel put a hand to the knife strapped to her thigh, and she could see out of the corner of her eye that the guys had taken up similar positions.<br>As the two guys came closer, Hazel squinted slightly. They looked kind of familiar. Both were tall and well built, armed to the teeth and muscular with sandy hair and green eyes.  
>Wait...green eyes?!<br>Hazel looked more closely at the floppy haired one and felt the familiar sensation of cold water sliding down her arms.  
>At the same time she locked eyes with the shorter one, and stiffened up at the same time he did.<br>"You!" They said simultaneously.

Ω

For the second time in forty eight hours Dean was speechless. It was something that didn't happen often I assure you.  
>There she was again, looking hot as hell in all black. Her three friends were with her, and all of them were armed. Dean noticed warily the swords strapped to her back and the hammers in the other guy's hand. The blonde and the brunette carried no weapons but Dean had a feeling they would bust out the metal at a moment's notice if they sensed threat.<br>Sam had been right, there was something very different about them.  
>The one holding the hammers lowered them slightly but kept them close to his body, ready to use.<br>"You know these guys Hazel?" He asked. The girl never took her eyes off him. Now normally this would have pleased Dean to no end, having someone that beautiful staring at him. But the girl called Hazel looked at him with a steely gaze, almost as if sizing him up to see how big of a threat he was, and how easy he would be to take down.  
>Not that he wouldn't mind being taken down by her that was...<br>_Shut up Winchester, get your head out of your pants!_  
>"Look closer Leo, I think these are the guys who dumped holy water on us at the diner yesterday."<br>"Ok first of all," Dean said putting his gun down completely and gesturing for Sam to do the same, "I'd like to point out that it was Sam here who did the dumping, so if you're gonna blame anyone, blame him. And secondly how the hell did you know it was holy water?"  
>The four of them exchanged glances and Dean had the oddest thought that they were having a four way mental conversation.<br>"It wasn't hard to guess," this time the blonde guy answered. "I knew you guys were watching us from the minute we all sat down, and you didn't hit Percy's arm hard enough to actually spill all that water on the table. So either you're extremely weak or you dumped that water on us on purpose. Wasn't hard to put two and two together.  
>Sam turned to Dean and gave him his impressed face. "Guy's good." Dean shook his head, trying to get them back on point.<br>"So back to my original question, what the hell are you guys doing here?" He asked. Dean wasn't feeling angry or hostile, in fact he had almost forgotten that they were on a hunt, which didn't happen very often. He was more curious than anything else.  
>"Well let's see," Hazel said tapping the side of her chin sarcastically, "we are in an abandoned condemned church in the middle of the night, rumored to the site of abductions and horrific monsters and we're armed to the teeth. What do you think we're doing?"<br>And sassy too.  
>"You guys are hunters?" Sam asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. The three boys exchanged glances before sharing a small smile.<br>"Naw man, we're tax consultants, of course we're hunters!" The one with the hammers said.  
>This could have been taken as an insult, but Sam could tell immediately just by looking at this guy that he was joking.<br>"But you guys don't look older then Sammy here, and you're completely on your own, how old are you?" Dean asked incredulously.  
>"We're nineteen," hammer guy replied "and maybe we should introduce ourselves. I'm Leo, this here's Hazel Jason and Percy."<br>Sam shot a glance at Dean. "Same age as me," he muttered to his brother and Dean nodded. "I'm Dean Winchester, this is my brother Sam."  
>He looked them all over carefully, aside from being the same age as his brother, they looked somewhat normal. Well as normal as a person could be with weapons strapped to their backs.<br>Dean's gaze wandered back to Hazel. She was way too beautiful to be doing a job like this. She looked just like Cassie, and Dean knew he wouldn't have wanted _her_ in this life.  
>No scratch that, she was even prettier then Cassie. He was so busy looking at her that he hadn't realized that Sam was talking again. He blinked bringing himself back into focus.<br>"I take it you guys haven't found the monster yet then," Sam said. The four shook their heads.  
>"But we've only been here about fifteen minutes," the blonde dude called Jason supplied.<br>It was odd being around other hunters. It had just been Dean and Sam for so long. In fact it felt like eons since they had even seen another hunter besides Bobby let alone conversed with one. Now they had met four who hunted together. Dean wasn't sure how he felt about this new development.  
>"Well we can take care of the hunt now, you guys can clear off," he said not even sure why he was saying this. Sam shot a confused look at him which he ignored.<br>"No offence man, but we were kinda here first," Jason said. He looked around at his friends carefully and it was clear that he handled all matters of diplomacy among the four.  
>"Look, you guys seem like decent people but this monster looks scary as hell, and Sammy and me...we've been hunting for a long time."<br>"So have we," Jason countered.  
>The six of them looked at each other. It was obvious they had reached a stalemate.<p>

Hazel felt the air begin to get tense, and her muscles begin to tighten up and she knew she should say something before this escalated into a knockdown drag out fight.  
>Not that she had any doubt that she Percy and Jason and Leo could take these guys, after they were demigods. But she really didn't want it to have to come to that.<br>It was time to step in.  
>"Alright gentlemen before the testosterone in the room escalates any further, suppose we work together on this? The monster I know we all saw looks way too big to be handled just by two guys and I know it would be a handful for us as well. Although if we work together, we may be able to take it down twice as fast."<br>Leave it to the only girl in the room to mediate.  
>Sam and Dean exchanged glances. They didn't really work with other hunters very much. To do that they would have to actually trust the other hunter to watch their back, and the Winchesters had some trust issues that needed to be dealt with.<br>They also got the feeling even if they said no, these guys would stick around and try to solve the case themselves anyway. So it really wasn't like they had much of a choice.  
>"Give us a minute," Sam said to the four of them. Hazel nodded and watched as they turned away and conferred with each other.<br>"Hazel are you crazy?" Percy hissed. "We've never hunted with other people before, and these were the guys just paranoid enough to dump holy water on us. How do you know we can trust them if it comes down to watching each other's backs?"  
>He had a valid point. But Hazel was convinced she had done the right thing.<br>"Do you guys remember what my dad told me?" She asked calmly. Leo nodded.  
>"Yeah, he said that we would meet some people who-" he cut off with a groan as her words sunk in.<br>"Crap, are you saying these are the people who are going to help us in this war?" Hazel spread her hands and looked at her three best friends.  
>"Look I don't know if these are the guys or not, but if there's one thing I know about my dad is that he's always been truthful. He may be a jerk sometimes, but he's never lied to me. If these are the people who are supposed to help us then I'd like to know. And if they're not, all we need to do is hightail it out of here in the mustang and never see them again. But we need to know."<br>Nobody could argue with that logic.  
>At that exact moment, the two brothers turned around and faced the four demigods.<br>"Alright let's get to work," Sam said.

Ω

Dean wasn't very happy with the current situation. After the Gordon incident, the older Winchester wasn't taking kindly to the idea of working with other hunters. After all when push came to shove the only person he could count on was his brother.  
>But then there was hot Hazel...<br>Alright, he would cooperate if only to get to know her a little better.  
>"So what have you guys found so far?" Sam asked as he walked up the steps of the platform toward them.<br>Dean could tell that his brother was eager to work with other hunters again and the fact that they were his age made him more at ease. So while the three guys filled Sam in on what they had discovered, Dean took another minute to look Hazel over.  
>Damn she was beautiful. But if the swords strapped to her back were any indication, she wasn't somebody to be messed with either. Hazel looked up at the exact same moment and caught him staring.<br>Part of her wanted to smile but the other part of her was annoyed. Leo's quip about him going back inside to get Dean's phone number at the diner the other day was still fresh in her mind.  
>Hazel hadn't been attracted to a guy since Frank had died. And there was no mistaking that this guy was freaking gorgeous. Hazel sucked air between her teeth and forced her mind to concentrate on something else.<br>"So you think this book is connected with this?" She heard Sam ask. Percy nodded. "It's obviously not written in English and it seems like a spell book."  
>"Can you read it?" Sam asked curiously.<br>"Only parts of it," Jason supplied. "There's a lot of talk about fire and water, the world ending and monsters rising from the pit...you know, the usual when it comes to apocalyptic spell books.  
>"Whoa time out," Dean said hurrying up the platform to join the conversation. "It mentions an apocalypse?"<br>Hazel nodded, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.  
>"I think it's safe to say that this isn't going to be just a simple monster job," she said.<br>"You didn't try reading it did you?" Sam asked with some trepidation. "Of course we didn't!" Jason exclaimed. "When you find a book of spells that mentions the word apocalypse you handle it with a ten foot pole!"  
>"Well we gotta do something," Dean said his tone becoming testy. "We gotta find those girls, we don't know what that monster is doing to them and any second now the other one could come back."<br>"What do you suggest we do then?" Percy asked matching his tone. The two of them had been sizing the other up like a bunch of alpha dogs marking their territory since the guys had first walked in.  
>"We've been over the place. No salt trails, sulfur, demonic signals, nothing."<br>"Well maybe you missed something," Dean said. Percy's eyes flared.

"Alright, let's just calm down," Leo said.

Dean shook his head. "I don't have time for this crap, we can't stand around here talking. Come on Sam we have a monster to kill."  
>He took two steps toward the stairs. Sam shot the demigods an apologetic expression and was about to follow when there was an ominous creaking sound.<br>"Everyone stop moving," Hazel hissed and they all obeyed. The creaking continued, yet this time it sounded much closer.  
>"What's going on?" Sam asked sounding uneasy, and suddenly Hazel knew what it was. It had been happening since the four of them set foot in the door of the church. She cursed she should have been paying more attention!<br>"We need to move...now!" She said.  
>Hazel had no sooner said the words, when the entire platform opened up into an enormous trapdoor and the six of them fell through the floor into complete blackness.<p>

Ω

Hazel had always loved slides.  
>When she was a child, she and her friend Sammy would dig trenches with their hands on a hill removing all the rocks so it curved downward. Then they would put on their old clothes and wait for it to rain. The rain would turn the makeshift slide muddy and they would spend hours sliding down the hill as fast as they could. They would stumble home time later, covered in mud and bruises, stomachs sore from laughing so hard, convinced that there was nothing in this world that was more fun.<br>This slide however was not like the ones she and Sammy had built. As soon as the bottom of the floor had fallen out from under them, they plummeted into complete darkness.  
>Although, this time, it kept going. Hazel and her friends hit the dirt floor of the tunnel enough to knock the air out of their lungs and kept on sliding because they had landed at such an angle. It was almost a ninety degrees and extremely dark. She thought she heard Sam yelling and Dean swearing as they slid down into the darkness.<br>"This is not so cool!" Leo howled from somewhere ahead of her. Somehow Hazel had managed to hold onto her flashlight and with some effort and she slid down the tunnel, she was able to turn it on.  
>It really didn't make much difference that she had. She barely had time to register rocks and strange plants as she slid past them.<br>She clamped her lips shut refusing to scream. In truth her main focus was seeing where she was going and not cracking her head against a rock as she Leo Jason Percy Sam and Dean tumbled head over heels down the earthy tunnel toward god knows what. And there was no need for her to scream as the quiet tunnel was already filled with yelling and cursing as they fell end over end.  
>There were numerous banging sounds as they hit rocks and caused loose earth to fall against the walls of the tunnel which seemed to widen as they slid farther.<br>It seemed like hours before the tunnel widened out even more and the six of them flew out of it and hit a wall on the opposite side hard.  
>Hazel felt something in her wrist crack and she let out a pained cry. She struggled to sit up and fought the sudden intense vertigo that assaulted her as she did.<br>Leo was the first on his feet as soon as he heard her. "Everyone alright? No bones broken?" There were grunts of affirmation from Sam and Dean and Percy and Jason seemed similarly alright. Pissed off and confused but alright.  
>"What the hell happened?" Dean asked to no one in particular. Percy took a look around the room where they had landed and gave a low whistle.<br>"I think we found where they might be keeping the girls," he said. At his words, the rest of them looked around.  
>They were sitting in a massive chamber. The ceiling went up so high, they could no longer see it. Although Hazel did see the faint silhouette of stalactites hanging down toward them. They looked enormous<br>No wait a minute...it wasn't a chamber. They had hit a wall, but that wall didn't connect to the ceiling. Rather it went up about seven feet and then stopped. There were other walls on the other side of the space. But they were placed randomly and at different angles. There were spaces between them that opened up the area into other hallways.

They were in a maze. At least that's what it looked like.

The rock walls were carved with strange designs, and the dirt floor was ashy and sodden. And it was hot….very hot. The tunnel they had fallen out of curved away and upward through sheer rock so high that they couldn't see it after a point. They were really far down, Hazel realized.  
>"Where are we?" Sam asked as he looked around. "Your guess is as good as mine," Jason said as he got to his feet. Suddenly he saw the expression of pain on Hazel's face and hurried over to her, dropping to his knees next to his friend.<br>"Gods Hazel are you alright?" Pluto's daughter nodded, sucking in air between her teeth. She was gripping her left arm with her other hand.  
>Immediately Percy and Leo were on their feet and next to him. "How did you land Hazel?" Jason asked calmly.<br>With some difficulty she raised her arm. "I landed on it," she cursed. "I forgot to tuck and roll at the last minute." Jason examined the joint and gently ran his fingers over it. Hazel hissed in pain.  
>By this time Sam and Dean had gotten to their feet and walked over. "Is she alright?" Dean asked. He seemed genuinely concerned and she gave him a small smile.<br>"Her wrist is broken," Jason told him, "Leo do you still have your back pack?"  
>"I'm offended you even asked that question," Leo huffed as he went to retrieve the green bag from where it had landed. "I never go anywhere without it."<p>

He picked it up and brought it over to Jason.  
>Jason unzipped it and fished around in the front pocket before pulling out one of the canteens they had brought with them. He sighed with relief when he noticed that none of the others were cracked and broke in the fall and were still full.<br>"Uh no offence, but I don't think water is gonna help her right now. A sling probably would though," Sam said when he saw the drink. Hazel and Jason exchanged glances. Percy gave Sam a wolfish grin that clearly said: _I know something you don't know._  
>"This isn't water," he said. Hazel took the canteen and sipped from it. Immediately she felt her wrist begin to straighten and she winced when she felt the bones slide back into place. She sighed and then took Jason's hand and got to her feet.<br>Dean was immediately on guard. "What the hell is that?" He asked. If he was down in the belly of the earth with a bunch of witches, he wanted to know about it.  
>Hazel flexed her wrist and gave him her steely eyed look. The boys exchanged glances.<br>"Let's just say that we have managed to procure a special type of drink that heals us," Jason offered. Dean looked like he wasn't buying it.

"Alright then let me try some," he said.  
>"Sorry man, can't do that," Jason said and Hazel admired how calm he was being. Dean raised an eyebrow "Oh yeah? And why is that?"<p>

"Because it would turn you extra freaking crispy," Leo supplied and Hazel glared at him. They hadn't had to tell a lot of people their secret in the past two years. Get in to town, do the job and then get the hell out of dodge, which was the way it always was.  
>"So, what you guys are witches?" Sam asked. He looked almost sad as he asked the question, like he was afraid of what he would have to do should the answer be yes.<br>The four demigods exchanged glances and then burst out laughing. Dean and Sam looked at each other, confused as hell.  
>"Dude can you imagine me with a witches hat and broom, stirring my cauldron?" Leo asked between gasps for air.<br>"Actually yeah I can," Hazel offered. "At least it would cover up that porcupine hair of yours. Remind me when we get back to the top to hold your head under water until you wash it."  
>"No please!"<br>"Alright, just what the hell is so funny?" Dean asked. Hazel could tell he was starting to get annoyed.  
>"We're not witches," she said as her laughter subsided. He folded his arms across his broad chest. Damn if he didn't look sexy when he did that.<br>"So then what exactly are you?" Sam asked looking more bewildered by the second. Percy Jason and Leo exchanged glances. Hazel rolled her eyes.  
>"Oh come on, just tell them, our cover's already blown. Besides it'll be fun to see their reaction."<br>"Reaction to what?" Jason sighed and then dropped the bomb.  
>"We're demigods," he said. Sam looked downright flabbergasted.<br>"Half man half god?" He asked even as Dean looked at him for an explanation. "But that's impossible, they're a myth!"  
>"Dude, you hunt myths, why is it so impossible to believe that we exist too?" Leo asked. The brothers exchanged glances. "We believed that it was a possibility that there were demigods somewhere but all the gods we've encountered were based on a source of power and controlled a certain area," Dean explained.<br>"Ok, so then if you are demigods who are your godly parents?" Sam asked. He didn't look hostile anymore, he looked excited like he just found a toy that he didn't know he had and couldn't wait to play with.  
>Jason pointed at each of his friends in turn. "Percy here is the son of Poseidon or Neptune if you prefer. I'm Zeus's kid, Leo's a child of Hephaestus or Vulcan. And Hazel? Well Hazel's a daughter of Hades."<br>"Wait your dad's the god of the dead?" Sam asked incredulously. Dean didn't know why but he found that incredibly hot.  
>Hazel nodded.<br>"This is so cool," Sam said. He looked pretty excited, and Hazel gave him a smile. She was liking this guy a little more every time he opened his mouth.  
>"Don't go getting excited yet Sam," Dean said. He still looked a little skeptical. "If you guys are demigods then you're supposed to have some kind of special powers."<br>"You want more proof?" Percy asked. Then he grinned. "Alright then, Leo light it up."  
>Valdez grinned and put his bag down. In one quick flick of his wrist, his hand burst into flame. Sam and Dean took a step back, disbelief coloring their features. After a second he put his hand out and raised an eyebrow at him.<br>"Dude that is wicked!" Sam said. Hazel smiled at his excitement. Dean for his part looked convinced.  
>"Well that explains how you guys can take care of yourselves on the road even though you don't look much older than Sam here," Dean said. "But you seem a little young to be running credit card scams."<br>The four demigods exchanged glances. Dean was starting to find that really irritating.  
>"We don't use credit cards," Percy said. Dean frowned. "Them how are you feeding yourselves?"<br>"We're...ah, well funded," Leo offered looking at Hazel. Dean raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed.  
>She knelt and pressed her hand to the earth, feeling around for anything valuable. Suddenly she felt a cool energy beneath her. Concentrating, she willed it to the surface. The ground began to rumble in the cavern. The soil beneath her hand erupted to reveal an emerald the size of a baseball. Hazel picked it up and looked it over with some satisfaction.<p>

The Winchesters were looking at her in disbelief. Hazel bounced the gem in her hand weighing it. "This would do us for about a year or two, right guys?" They nodded.

"Holy crap," Sam breathed. "If we had someone like you hunting with us…..we'd never have to touch another credit card again!"

"So that's what you guys can do?" Dean asked carefully. Hazel could tell he had no idea how to weigh the situation.

She looked at her three best friends. "I guess you can call us avatars. Jason being the son of the sky god has power over the air. Leo's our resident mechanic and fireman. Percy's the aqua man and me? I'm queen of the earth."

Sam grinned. Dean was convinced but he still seemed a little wary. It wasn't every day that you meet four demigods who each controlled their own elements.

"So now that we've got all that squared away," Leo began looking around, "Where the hell are we and how the how the hell are we going to get out of here?"

"Let me get to the top of the wall so I can see the answer to your first question," Jason offered. With that he summoned the air in the cavern and shot to the top of the wall. Dean watched him, eyebrows raised mouth slightly open.

Percy noticed his stunned look and chuckled slightly. "Yeah, Jason's our resident superman. We need to get anywhere high up, we send him."

"Tell me something," Dean said, he honestly looked like wanted to understand. "Have you guys always been able to do this? I mean like how long has this been going on?" Percy ran a hand through his hair.

"I guess I first started to tap into it when I was about twelve. At first it only happened when I was really angry. I remember being picked on at a school trip. I was a shrimp of a kid, and finally I'd had it. It was like the fountain exploded and grabbed the people messing with me, and threw them into it."

Dean started to chuckle, that almost sounded like something Sammy would do. He decided this kid was alright. Sam had gone to check on the backpacks that had tumbled down the tunnel with them, wanting to make sure everything was intact.

"Yo Sparky!" Leo called up to Jason who was still standing atop the wall. "How's the view up there?" Dean gave Percy an odd look. _Sparky?_ He mouthed.

Percy grinned. "I'll explain that later," he said as Jason levitated himself back to the ground. He winced and shook his head.

"Not good Valdez, it's like I figured. We are in the middle of a freaking maze and I can't even see the far end."

"How far underground are we?" Sam asked as he walked back over, lugging his and Dean's bags. The boys turned to Hazel.

"About a mile," she replied. "It would take forever to climb all the way back up," she said trying not to be discouraged.

"It's so hot," Sam complained.

"That's because we're hundreds of feet below the surface. My guess is that there's probably an active volcano around here too. And the temperature's rising."

"So we have to find these kidnapped girls, kill this monster and get the hell out of here, before it gets too hot that we burst into flames?" Dean asked, cutting right to the chase.

Hazel looked at her friends. "In the vernacular, yes." He cursed. "So how the hell are we going to do that?"

Just then a low rumble shook the cavern. It sounded suspiciously like a laugh. The four demigods shot looks at each other. That sounded terrifyingly familiar.

All of a sudden the air in front of the six hunters rippled and a man appeared. His skin was pale, the kind of skin that had never seen daylight. He was wearing a long dark robe which covered his entire form and drifted down to the floor. His hair and eyes were as black as Hazel's Stygian iron sword and he was tall, at least six feet.

He smiled at all of them and immediately the four demigods drew their swords. The man shook his head. "No, that won't do." He flicked his wrist and instantly their weapons were on the floor. As they looked at their discarded weapons in disbelief, he waved his hand in a circular motion and suddenly all six hunters were thrust back against the wall. There was nothing they could have done. It was like trying to hold back the tide.

"What…the hell…is this?" Dean managed to force out. The man looked at each of them carefully in turn.

"Isn't this a treat?" he murmured half to himself. "I think Epicurius going to bring me another screaming brat to use for the ritual and here I get four demigods and the infamous Sam and Dean Winchester. Oh this is just too perfect."

"Oh really and what could you possibly want with us?" Hazel hissed with as much vehemence as she could manage.

"You'll see Hazel Levesque. But first, you have to find me. You see I'm not really all here. If I were…..well let's just say that it wouldn't be good for you. But now that I have the six of you here, I can finally have some entertainment, she never lets me you see. I could take what I want from you now, but that wouldn't be any fun."

"What are you talking about you son of a bitch?" Dean was struggling mightily against the invisible cords binding him.

The man didn't look incensed by the elder Winchester's words, in fact he looked all too calm, and that unsettled Hazel more than his unfortunate ability with magic.

"Now as I was saying…..I'm going to wait for you to find me. After all, finding me is the only key to getting out of here. Not that you ever will that is. But if you somehow decided to carry a futile hope that you will, then please come. I like hide and seek. You're going to die either way. But she would like to meet you before that happens, so she can finally have the pleasure of picking the last of the seven off."

Hazel felt her blood turn to ice.

"And just to hurry the process along, I think having Epicurius on your tails will give you some incentive to move faster."

"What are you talking about?" Jason growled. The man, although Hazel could clearly tell he was some form of magician from the way magic swirled around him, chuckled softly.

"I promise all your questions will be answered when you find me."

He moved to walk away, but then turned back.

"But I would hurry if I were you. Epicurius and his brother are ill fed and ill tempered. They don't like it when they have to chase their food, it makes them….cranky."

The air rippled again and the next thing they knew he had disappeared. As soon as he vanished, their bonds dropped off and they all fell to the ground.

"Who the hell was that?" Sam asked between gasps for air.

"No one good," Jason supplied. "I think we finally know who's taking the girls and where they are. Now we gotta find this creep and get them back."

Percy looked carefully at Hazel. "Have you seen him before Hazel? He acted like he knew you." Hazel shook her head. "I've never seen him before in my life."

Dean got to his feet. "Well it looks like we have to work to do."

"You can say that again," Leo said as he slung his bag over his shoulders. Dean looked at the four demigods.

"If you guys want to get out of here, feel free, I'm pretty sure you guys could." They looked at him like he was nuts.

"Are crazy man?" Leo asked. "Even if we could which I very much doubt, that magician or whatever he was probably has this whole place shrouded in magic, and how were you planning on getting out of here? He was right, the only way we're gonna get out of here is by finding him."

"I hate doing what the bad guys want," Hazel muttered.

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked looking at their new partners. The four demigods shared a look.

"We gotta figure that out," Jason said picking up his weapon. "Because until then, we need to outrun the monsters, find this bastard, save the kidnapped girls if they're still alive, and get ourselves out of here without dying."

Leo grinned, he liked impossible situations.

"Huge monsters on our tail, navigating a freaking gigantic maze, finding a magician who wants to kill us? What are we waiting for? Bring it on!"

Ω

**So there's chapter four! I had a lot of fun writing it. The next few chapters will probably be full of action as the Winchesters and the demigods figure out how to work together, fighting monsters and getting themselves out of the maze. I hope you guys like this chapter as much as I do. Also I've been getting a few questions about the structure of the story, things are a little different then my readers expected. Every question you guys asked there is an explanation for and will be explained in later chapters so don't worry. Please drop a review when you're finished and happy reading everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

They would have died at least a dozen times in the next hour if it hadn't been for Hazel. What she had said earlier was true, Dean thought, she was Queen of the earth.

Hazel for her part hadn't been underground in a while, and so she was a little nervous that she wouldn't remember how to lead and what to look for, but she needn't have worried. As soon as the boys realized how deep underground they were, they automatically voted that she take the lead. Sam and Dean looked a little skeptical at first, but after she had stopped Sam from falling into a pit that he didn't know was there, they agreed that she should walk in front and lead the way from then on.

"Stop," Hazel said.

They had reached a cross roads. There were four paths ahead of them and each were lined with the stone cold walls of the maze. Except this time, the walls rose up higher than they had previously, so much so that a thin veil of mist covered them from a certain point, so Hazel couldn't see all the way up.

Why did she feel like something bad was about to happen?

"What is it Hazel?" Jason asked at her elbow. She pursed her lips, "I'm not sure. The mist is manipulating the signals on each pathway, I can sense that something's blocking the path on the east and west sides but I can't tell what it is," she growled in frustration.

"Hey, don't worry, we'll figure it out," her best friend said patting her shoulder. He cast a glance behind him at Leo and Percy. They nodded at him, already knowing what he was going to do.

Sam and Dean were beginning to look a little impatient. They had slung their guns to their backs, but Hazel could still tell they would be ready to use them at a moment's notice.

Not that regular bullets would have any effect on a drakon that was…..

"What's the holdup?" Dean asked, impatience resonating in his tone. Hazel had to resist the urge to shiver. Gods of Olympus he had one of the sexiest voices she had ever heard. She shook her head trying to focus. They had no guarantee that these guys were the ones they were supposed to be working with, all they had to do was complete this job and get out of here in one piece….

Meanwhile Jason had slipped his coin out of his pocket and was turning it over and over in his hand the way he always did when he was tense. After a few seconds, he flipped it high into the air and it came up in sword form.

Sam and Dean jumped back a step. "Dude, I so need one of those," Dean commented. Jason shot him a quick grim smile over his shoulder before slowly advancing into the center of the clearing between the four pathways.

This is usually what they always did. Jason could manipulate the air and while they all had wicked reflexes, Jason had the innate ability to respond a half second faster. No one knew why….probably a result of Roman training though. There was a reason he had been voted praetor of the legion.

Holding the lance securely, he advanced slowly into the center between the four pathways. As soon as his feet touched the middle of the clearing however, a force blasted him backward into the wall at his right about twenty feet away from them. He hit it with a crack and slumped down dazed.

"Jason!" Percy yelled, he moved to go into the clearing, but Hazel shot out an arm and stopped him.

"Wait," she said her voice going so hard that it brought all four guys up short. "There's obviously some kind of magical barrier preventing us from getting through to the other pathways. And it's obviously on some kind of turnstile."

"How do you know?" Dean asked frowning at her.

"Because Jason was able to reach the center without any kind of effect, as soon as he put one foot the wrong way, he was blasted into the wall, it was too fast even for his instincts."

She turned to their resident grease monkey.

"Leo when I say go, I want you to get to Jason. When I say stop, I mean _stop_. Or you'll be cut in half by the turnstile."

Leo paled. Hazel turned back to the clearing and concentrated hard. She brought all the magic that Hecate had been instilling in her from its dormant place in her mind to the forefront of her consciousness. She could almost feel it, a dark purple substance boiling in her blood. The moment she began to feel like she couldn't contain it any longer, she took a small step forward and raised her hand, closing her eyes.

Then she concentrated hard pushing all the power out of her onto the magically disguised tool in front of her. It was hard and she felt her strength drain from the effort, but she was rewarded when Sam next to her breathed in sharply. She opened her eyes.

In front of her there was an enormous contraption. It looked almost like an amusement ride. At least seven feet tall, the bottom of it had rotating planks lined with wicked looking silver spikes so if you were quick and walked in between them, you were safe, but if you miscalculated even a fraction or were a second too slow, you would lose a limb.

Looking up beyond the rotating blades of death, Hazel could see similar other instruments of torture. Something that caught her eye were the saw blades that were rising and lowering from the upper and outer rims of the contraption. It guaranteed that whoever tried to walk there would be sliced in half. Then if you managed to somehow get past that, there were spinning whips that lashed out and spun at least eighty miles an hour propelling anything that got near them back. They were what had hit Jason.

The entire thing looked like a deranged merry go round from an old fashioned horror movie, in that it had a wooden overhang that the saw blades were coming out of, and Hazel wasn't real eager to ride this one. The outside of the contraption was coated in what looked like sparkly purple jello. The magic Hazel had cast had landed on every surface of the wooden structure, illuminating it and making it light up like a giant purple spotlight.

"What the hell did you do?" Dean asked looking at her incredulously. Hazel had to fight the urge to smile at the impressed tone in his voice. They weren't out of danger yet.

"I can do a whole lot more then bring gems to the surface of the ground Dean Winchester," she said. A second later, she wanted to kick herself.

_This is no time for flirting Levesque!_ She mentally screamed. Thankfully Jason's pained groan from across the clearing snapped her back to focus.

"How the hell am I supposed to get past that?" Leo asked. Hazel turned to look at him. The tips of his ears had turned white.

"If you think you can disable the mechanism from here Leo, then go ahead and try, but it's going to be just as difficult as getting across to where Jason is." Leo turned and eyed the structure in front of them.

"Not for me it won't be," was all he said. Then, before any of them could stop him, he raced into the clearing.

Hazel hissed loudly but didn't cry out as he ducked under the first saw blades and jumped over the rotating spikes of death by his feet. The spiked whips lashed out at his head, but Leo simple raised a hand and a fire roared to life. It burned through the ropes that hurled themselves at him and the remaining charred ones dropped to the ground at his feet.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hazel saw Sam and Dean glance at each other in surprise. Leo's fire powers were still somewhat surprising to her but after a second, she returned to the matter at hand.

By this time, Leo had reached the trunk of the merry go round and was tinkering around with something at its base. A moment later, there was a horrible creaking noise and the top half of the contraption disconnected from the bottom and crashed to the ground at the hunter's feet. It was now completely useless.

Leo stood up and blew on his screw driver like he was blowing steam off a Smith and Wesson gun in the old west showdowns. He whirled it on one of his fingers, and slid it back into his tool belt in one smooth motion.

"Faster than Jesse James," he quipped, grinning at his friends impishly. Hazel rolled her eyes and made her way into the clearing with Sam and Dean to inspect the now disassembled booby trap.

Percy hurried over to Jason, slung his back pack off his shoulders and passed the canteen of nectar to his friend who had just come around.

Sam shuddered as he inspected the blades. "God, if we'd gone into this clearing…..its amazing Jason missed all this. How did he do it?"

Dean turned to Hazel. "I have another question. How did you know that this trap was here and how did you make it visible?" He didn't sound angry, but he also looked like he wanted an answer and wouldn't tolerate any bull. Hazel sighed.

"I have some experience in dealing with things like this. I have power over elements in the earth…..but I can also use magic."

She saw Dean's eyebrows raise and held up a hand, "Like I said earlier, no, I am not a witch. And it's not even a consistent ability. It's not like I could wave my hand and conjure up a picnic lunch right this second. I only use it when it's absolutely necessary, like in combat, and only if I have no other choice."

Sam nodded, immediately accepting her explanation without question. Dean still looked a little wary, but appeared pacified for now.

Hazel glanced over at Jason who had finished drinking from the canteen and passed it back to Percy who helped him to his feet.

"What the hell happened?" he asked as he steadied himself. The four other hunters walked over to them.

"Dude, you got clotheslined by a merry go round," Leo said. Jason groaned. "Yeah, I'm never going to live that down."

Dean turned to look away from the group to the now empty corridors of the maze ahead of them.

"Hazel, are there any more barriers between us and the rest of the maze here?" he asked gesturing to the other pathways that appeared open to them on the other side of the clearing. Hazel turned from her friends and concentrated for a moment.

After a few seconds, she turned back, they were all looking at her anxiously.

"Nothing for right now," she said and they breathed a sigh of relief. Jason took his bag from Percy and slung it across his shoulders. They moved to go forward into the maze again.

"But," Hazel put up a hand stopping them, "Maybe I should go first."

Ω

After walking for a couple of hours and seeing nothing, Hazel was frustrated. The heat never seemed to lessen, the walls seemed to go on forever, and she was getting tired of seeing the same cold stone carvings engraved onto every surface. It just reminded her of how bleak their situation looked.

Even if they did find the magician, what was to stop him from having killed the girls and using whatever he needed for his bizarre and barbaric ritual? Being a child of Hades, she was no stranger to bleak situations.

When Leo had asked her and Frank for their help in stopping Gaea, she had hated his plan, wept and despised it. But she had gone along with it, knowing it was very likely that she would lose one of her best friends and brothers in arms.

This situation was no different than when they had been facing down the earth mother and an impending apocalypse. That thought comforted her a bit.

Leo glanced at his watch and tapped the screen. "Does anyone know what time it is?" he asked barely stifling a yawn.

Dean glanced down at his own timepiece and blinked. "It's just after one," he responded.

"In the afternoon?"

"No in the morning."

That brought them all up short. "Have we been walking all day?" Jason asked incredulously. Hazel rubbed her shoulders, so as to massage away the tightness in her muscles. "No wonder, I'm so stiff and tired," she commented.

"Should we stop, do you think?" Sam asked looking around at all of them. The four demigods exchanged glances.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Dean said slowly. Hazel glanced at him. She could tell that he wanted to find the girls fast and she admired him for it, but they weren't going to accomplish anything while half awake. And she said so.

Dean still looked like he wanted to keep going.

"Look man," Percy said, "Hazel's right, we aren't gonna get anywhere or be of help to anyone if we're trying to stay awake. In fact, we'd probably just be a danger to others and to ourselves."

Dean sucked in a breath, he didn't look at all happy about the situation, but Sam nodded, as if recognizing that they had made a good point.

"It's just for a couple hours, Dean," He said to his brother, "then we'll get back in the game." Dean nodded finally.

Leo rubbed his hands together, "Alrighty then, I'll get dinner started."

Ω

A short while later, Leo had a pan sitting over a makeshift fire, grilling some hamburger meat. The smell of cooking meat caused Hazel's stomach to growl. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until the smell assaulted her senses.

Leo tossed some bell peppers into the mix causing the contents of the pan to sizzle and pop.

Hazel glanced around at all of them. Sam and Dean were sitting next to each other which was to be expected, but they were all sitting in a circle around the fire. Leo had agreed to put it out as soon as he was finished cooking, so hopefully the drakons on their tail wouldn't notice.

In a few minutes, they were all enjoying pepper and beef tacos courtesy of Chef Leo.

"Dude, this is great," Sam commented around a mouthful of taco. Leo grinned at him. "Thanks man, I always try to keep the four of us well fed when we're on the road."

Dean lowered his taco back onto his plate.

"So….what's your story? How long have you guys been on the road hunting together?"

Percy and Jason exchanged glances. They had already told the Winchesters their biggest secret…..aw hell might as well throw the baby out with the bath water.

"We've really only been on the road for about two years, but we've been hunting since we were kids," Percy said.

Dean raised an eyebrow, "And your parents were ok with that? Please tell me they didn't raise you in the life."

Jason shook his head. "It's not like they had much of a choice. Like I said earlier, we're demigods so we give off…..I suppose you could call it a pheromone, to any monster that's close to us, letting them know that we're there and to come kill us."

Sam's eyes widened, "so you guys would have had to start learning to hunt as soon as you could walk." There was a strange look in his eyes, almost like excitement and Hazel wondered at the significance. She made a mental note to ask him later.

"Not necessarily Percy supplied. "My mom was able to hide me from the monsters until I was twelve. Then, I was found by a Minotaur and I had to kill it."

Sam and Dean exchanged disbelieving looks, and Percy held up his hands. "Look I know it sounds crazy, but that's what happened. Thankfully my mom survived and I got taken to a place where there were other kids like me."

Dean choked on his taco. "Others? How many more of you are there?" Leo laughed and took a sip from his water bottle.

"Let's just say the gods have been busy."

"So how did you guys meet?" Sam asked. He appeared fascinated by all the new information. Hazel wanted to laugh, he looked about their age but when learning something new, he appeared like a kid in a candy shop.

"That's where it starts to get complicated," she offered. "I didn't meet Percy and Leo until about three years ago, but I've known Jason since I was twelve, when he became praetor of the twelfth legion."

Dean blinked, "Come again?"

"Like I said, it's really complicated. Because we're demigods, we'll have to deal with monsters wanting our blood for the rest of our lives, so the gods decided they were going to create….certain places that were monster free, where demigods could go to stay safe, and learn how to fight and defend themselves when they left. That's where the four of us ended up. Percy and Leo started off in a place called Camp Half-blood, Jason and I come from a place called Camp Jupiter."

"Ok, I think I'm with you so far," Dean mused.

"Good, because it can get even more confusing. Percy Jason and I are what you would call the offspring of the Big Three."

"That's right, because Zeus, Poseidon and Hades were the three major gods of the twelve Olympians, and they were the most powerful," Sam interjected. The four demigods looked at him, all of them pleasantly surprised.

"You know Greek mythology?" Hazel asked. Sam gave her a sheepish smile. "When you grow up learning different Latin and Hebrew incantations, you tend to get a little curious about the history behind them, and that can lead to other studies."

Hazel made a mental note not to underestimate Sam again. Underneath the GQ good looks, there was a sharp brain.

"Right, so because the three of us are children of the Big Three, our scent or aura is that much more enticing to the other monsters. The odds of us surviving to the age we are, are nothing short of miraculous. And Leo-"

"Oh yeah, just go ahead and ignore the best part of this quartet," Leo said putting the fire out and scattering the ashes. Jason grinned.

"Sorry man, there's no way we could forget you," he said grinning. Leo sat back down and snorted in mock annoyance. "That's better."

"Leo's our resident mechanic and Mr. Fix It. I can't count the number of times he saved my ass in the past two years," Percy said clapping a hand on Leo's shoulder and grinning at his friend. Leo smirked.

"Wait, who's your dad again?" Dean asked. He was trying to keep all the names straight, because this was beyond weird.

"Hephaestus, or Vulcan if you prefer," Leo told him. "Basically I'm just good with my hands and handy with hammers and a frying pan. Although as if that wasn't enough, my dad decided he wanted to give me the gift of fire." As if to emphasize his point, he flicked his wrist and a small flame danced across his palm.

"Dude, that is so sick," Sam said. Leo grinned at him, and Hazel could tell that the two guys liked each other. _Well, that's good, maybe we can at least finish this job on good terms, _she thought.

"So what are you guys doing on the road then, away from these…..safe houses?" Dean asked. Hazel licked her lips and glanced around at her friends.

"Let's just say, something happened, and we couldn't stay there anymore, we had to leave," she said quietly.

She could tell that Dean wanted to ask more questions because she had been crazy vague. But he was interrupted when Sam yawned loudly.

"Well I think we can call it a night for story time," Leo said. The rest of them nodded.

"I'll take the first watch," Sam offered. Percy frowned. "Are you sure man? You look more tired than any of us."

Their new friend nodded. "It's the least I can do after Hazel saved my ass a dozen times today."

He smiled at her and Hazel winked back at him to convey it had been her pleasure. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dean's jaw tighten and she wondered at the significance. A second later though as her friends got comfortable, she felt sleep start to assault her and she forgot about it entirely.

Hazel bundled up her leather jacket on the ground and lay down, resting her head on it. She hadn't realized how tired she was, because only minutes later, she was fast asleep. Falling down tunnels and nearly getting killed a dozen times will do that to you.

Ω

It wasn't until about an hour had passed that Sam felt it was safe to say anything. Dean had spent most of that time watching Hazel sleep, an odd expression on his face.

"So what do you think?" his younger brother asked. Dean blinked as if coming out of a trance.

"What do I think about what?" he asked. Sam rolled his eyes. "What do you think? I mean Percy Jason Leo and Hazel. What do you think about them?"

Dean was quiet for a minute. He ran a hand through his hair before exhaling. "I don't know man, I mean it isn't every day that you meet four people who claim to be half god. But if saving our asses today is any indication, then they're trustworthy. In fact, they're probably the most trustworthy hunters we've met so far."

Sam nodded. "And they'd have more reason than any other hunter to keep secrets. Being a demigod? That's a loaded gun waiting to go off."

"When was the last time we hunted with other people?" Dean mused rubbing a hand across his chin.

"It would had to have been Gordon."

They both winced, remembering the disaster that was. After hightailing it away from that nutcase, they both been incredibly wary of other hunters, not even going by the roadhouse very often, for fear that they would run into him.

Yeah, so how do you think we should take down this monster?" Dean asked jerking both brothers out of the past.  
>"I'm not sure, but if these guys are any indication, I'm don't know if guns are gonna be of any use here," Sam said slowly. Dean frowned. "How do you know?"<br>"Dude, did you see that bastard on the roof outside? It looked like a freaking dragon, bullets are going to have any effect on an iron plated hide like that."  
>Dean sucked in a breath, looking increasingly uneasy. "We have our knives," he offered. Sam laughed grimly. "Those things aren't even the length of my forearm, and unless we can get as proficient as these guy seem to be with a sword within the next twenty four hours, then we're kinda screwed." They exchanged grim looks.<br>"Yeah, and no offence to these guys, I don't want to have rely on anyone to save my ass when it's in me to save it myself," Dean said. Sam nodded.  
>While both brothers were ok with hanging back when things were going on that they didn't understand, for example when Hazel had to use magic on the on the trap earlier, but when it came down to using their hands to take care of themselves, the thought of someone else doing it for them made Dean's skin itch.<br>"Ok, but how are we gonna do that? It's not like we're gonna have a lot of time to spar when we're on the run from a huge ass monster," Sam noted. Dean shrugged and tried to be optimistic.  
>"Remember what I said when we were trying to kill Azazel? We'll figure it out...just like we always do."<p>

Ω

_Hazel was standing in a room that was oddly familiar. She blinked and looked around, suddenly recognizing it. It was her room in the old house in New Orleans where she had lived with her mother Queen Marie. She had played here with Sammy when the two of them were small. The bed was still there are well as the old beige drapes that she had hated so much, and even after all this time, the room still felt comforting, reminding her of other more peaceful events in her past. It was also a time when her mother had still acted like her mother, when she was still in possession of her mind and not being harassed by the voice of Gaea.  
>"What am I doing here?" She asked out loud to herself absently.<br>"I called you here," said a familiar voice. Hazel whirled around and found herself face to face with her brother.  
>"Nico!" She ran across the room and threw her arms around him. She felt his arms encircle her and she buried her head in his shoulder fighting the tears that were pressing against her eyelids.<br>"I missed you so much," she whispered hoarsely. Nico put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back so he could look into her eyes.  
>She was amazed at how calm and unburdened he looked. The tension was gone from his face. His skin which had been very pale in life, had a tan healthy glow to it. He looked stronger and more confident, and he had muscled up and was filling out his clothes.<br>Hazel realized she was staring at him and blinked. "Don't take this the wrong way," she said reaching out and straightening his collar, "but death really suits you."  
>Nico threw back his head and laughed. A deep genuine sincere laugh that was so unlike him that Hazel had to remind herself that this was her brother.<br>"I've been told Elysium looks good on me, and you look amazing too, life on the road was made for you, I'd watch out for other guys though, I'm not there to beat them up," he said and Hazel gave a small smile. His laughter faded and his face sobered.  
>"I miss you a lot too Hazel, but I'm where I'm supposed to be and so are you." Hazel dropped her arms and stepped away from him, her smile fading. "I know, but it doesn't mean I have to like it," she said.<br>Nico reached down and took her hand. "I would love to be there with you, but you know the only way for me to leave Elysium is to be born into a different life. At least this way I can still talk to you."  
>Hazel nodded conceding the point. "I know, it's just...hard though." She felt a lump begin to form in her throat and with some effort, she swallowed it. The last thing she wanted to do was cry.<br>Nico's face softened. "I know, but listen, I came here for more than one reason." He glanced down at the hand he was still holding, the hand that bore his ring and held it up. "Dad told me you accepted my gift. I'm glad you did."  
>"Yeah what was up with that?" Hazel asked. She couldn't help but feel a little irritated. She loved her brother like crazy, but this was beyond bizarre.<br>"Dad already told you that war is coming, he didn't think this was a good idea, but I wanted you to have my gift, because it's too powerful and useful to go to waste. And you're the only one who knows how to use it."  
>"I don't understand," Hazel said in a small voice looking down at her feet. Nico tilted her chin up so he could look into her eyes.<br>"I know, but don't worry, soon you will. Now I need to tell you about that magician who's on your tail. You need to be wary of him."  
>"Gee thanks for the warning," Hazel said sarcasm dripping from her tone, "I hadn't figured that out from falling down tunnels and being thrown against walls by him. Not to mention the two Drakons that he set on us."<br>Nico raised an eyebrow at her and she sighed. "Sorry, go on."  
>"Right, so this magician controls these Drakons, but he's no ordinary magic user. He's a son of Hecate, and he's powerful, that's why you didn't sense the trapdoor beforehand. He manipulated the mist with very strong magic so it dulled your senses until it was too late. He's a pretty powerful half blood and he hates the gods."<br>Hazel stiffened up. "What?" She asked quietly. Nico nodded. "Unfortunately, there are still some demigods disgruntled with the outcome of the giant war. They honestly believe that the world would be a better place under Gaea and Porphyrion's rule."  
>"But that's crazy," Hazel exclaimed, "If the giants had won, an apocalypse would have ensued. All the humans and demigods would have been wiped out. Life as we know it would have ended."<br>Nico nodded, "I know, but they don't see it that way. But back to what I was saying earlier. You know that Gaea's a part of this." Hazel folded her arms across her chest. "I know, but I don't see how that's possible. Leo blasted her to smithereens two years ago."_

_"Gaea is a primordial goddess. She's as immortal as the Titans were. Kronos didn't die in the second Titan war, but we are under the assumption that he's been spread so thin he'll never be able to form a consciousness again. But he isn't dead, and neither is Gaea. There have been no signs of the earth mother for the past two years...until now."  
>Hazel felt her blood run cold. She had been desperately hoping that the magician was bluffing. "This magician and son of Hecate is serving her isn't he?"<br>Nico nodded. "He is, but we still have some time. He's prepared to reassemble the parts of Gaea so she may think again and attempt to rise for a second time, but he needs one crucial ingredient."  
>"And what's that?"<br>Nico pierced her through with a look. "I think you know, you Jason Percy and Leo have got to stop him. And as much as I don't like the idea of you working with mortals, Dad was right. You're gonna need Sam and Dean's help."  
>"What do you know about this war Nico?" Hazel asked suspiciously. Her brother sighed. "Not nearly as much as I would like to. Dad knows and I've been trying to get him to tell me, but he won't budge, you know what he says about demigods knowing too much of the future. It's really dangerous."<br>Hazel growled in frustration, "What does he expect me to do? I feel like he's placed the outcome of all of this on my shoulders."  
>"This probably isn't a good time to mention that there's more," Nico said tentatively. Hazel groaned, "What else could go wrong?"<br>"Dad probably already told you this, but this monster is a little different from the ones you've faced before. This is a monster straight from a certain part of Tartarus. It's never been allowed to leave before because it's too powerful, and it comes in two forms, somehow this magician has summoned it. You need to kill both forms for it stay completely dead, otherwise it'll just keep coming back."  
>"So how do we kill it?" Hazel asked<br>"Not we Hazel, you."  
>She stared at her brother as if he had just grown two heads.<br>"Come again?" _

_Nico sighed. "Like I said, this is a drakon from Tartarus. You've never seen it before, but Percy has." Hazel frowned and was about to ask what that meant, when he continued.  
>"Only a child of the underworld can kill this one, because this drakon was sired by Tartarus and was one of the first children of Echidna. It's one of the most ancient monsters. You're a child of the underworld Hazel. You're the only one who can kill it. The others will help. But it has to be you."<br>Hazel suddenly felt overwhelmed. It must have shown on her face because Nico squeezed her hand.  
>"It'll be alright Hazel, I promise," he said gently. She wiped a hand across her face, angry at the tears that were appearing there.<br>"It wasn't alright when my mother died, it wasn't alright when we lost Annabeth, Piper Frank and you, and it wasn't alright when I had to spend sixty years of my life in the underworld. How can you possibly know that everything's going to alright?"  
>"Because I know you. You, Percy Leo and Jason fight harder for what's right then any other demigod I've ever met. The four of you are a team, you're unstoppable. There's a reason monsters can't kill you. So yes because I know all of you, I know everything's gonna be alright."<br>"You really have too much confidence in us, you know," she said in a choked laugh. Nico shook his head and smiled at her. "No, I'd say I have just enough. You guys are going to succeed. But you'll also need Sam and Dean's help."  
>Hazel frowned, "what do you know about them Leo? Are they the ones we're supposed to be working with in this war?"<br>"I don't know Hazel, Dad won't tell me. I think it's safe to say that it's a good bet though."  
>"Fabulous," Hazel muttered. She was starting to get sick of the words I don't know.<br>"Nico, why did you give me your gift? Dad said it was because you thought I would need it, but is it really that, or is there something more to it?"  
>Her brother sighed. "I just sensed that there would be a time coming soon when you would need it Hazel. One of our greatest prisoners is rattling the cage down here and it is all that dad can do to keep him contained. I suspected that the magician was taking orders from this monster to wake Gaea. She's one of the few who may be able to free him easily. And let's just say if Gaea wakes again and unites with this particular prisoner...well, we'll wish she had risen the first time and had all died in that apocalypse."<em>

_"So nice of you not to sugar coat it," Hazel muttered. Nico spread his hands. "I told you before Hazel, I'll never lie to you."  
>"I know, I know, it's just I wouldn't mind a few untruths every now and then. So how do we stop the magician?"<br>"I can't tell you that Hazel. Unfortunately, I think the only way is by sending him back to the underworld. The less of a hand Gaea has in this world, even if it isn't her own, the better."  
>Hazel felt sad. Getting rid of other demigods was never something she liked, but if what Nico had said was true, this one appeared to be twisted and warped beyond saving. She looked up at her brother.<br>"I wish you were here, I don't want to have to do this alone," Nico's eyes were sorrowful. "I know, but remember, this may be your task, but you'll have Jason Percy and Leo to help you with it, you'll never be truly alone."  
>She nodded, trying keep her eyes from misting over with tears again.<br>Nico reached out and pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. "I'll never be far away," he said. "And look on the bright side, if this goes awry, I'll be waiting for the four of you in Elysium."  
>"Thanks, that's real comforting," Hazel mumbled thickly. Nico out his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back.<br>"Now I think it's time for you to wake up. Oh and by the way if you see Reyna, tell her-"  
>A curious roaring sound emitted from his throat. Hazel frowned, "what did you say? I didn't get that."<br>Nico tried again but the sound came again, this time louder. All of a sudden, the dream faded away and Hazel woke to find their makeshift camp under siege. _

Ω

Sam and Dean had been sitting, talking quietly when a shadow had swooped overhead. Dean caught the sight of enormous bat like wings and a black body that blotted out the dim light of the maze for a few seconds.

It was followed by a roar that shook the ground, and all of a sudden the four demigods were awake.

"What the hell is going on?" Leo asked rubbing his eyes to get rid of the sleep. Hazel got to her feet and glanced up in the direction that Dean was looking. She cursed in Greek. It was starting.

"Get ready boys, we got company," Percy muttered. He uncapped Riptide and the bronze blade sprang forth, sharp as pain and wicked bright. Jason flipped his coin into the air and it came up in lance form. Leo twirled his hammers back and forth like he was whirling guns at a showdown.

Hazel pulled both her swords from their sheaths on her back, eyes locked on the winged drakon that was swooping closer toward them.

"Where did you get those?" Percy asked as he came to stand beside her. "Long story," she said, "I'll explain later."

Dean and Sam had locked and loaded their guns, not knowing what else to do.

Leo caught sight of their weapons and bit back a chuckle. "Dude, you're not gonna get very far with those."

"It's kinda all we have," Sam said, eyes glued to the monster that had touched down with a crash, somewhere near them behind a few of the walls, about fifty feet away. They could hear it roaring and cracking the stone floor with its massive feet, vibrations shaking the ground as it moved.

Hazel cursed, knowing they had maybe a minute before the bastard made an appearance and they were hamburger.

She raced over to the bags that lay piled up by the wall where they had dropped them earlier. Unzipping it, she pulled out her _spatha_ and tossed it to Sam. She had no use for it.

"I hope you know how to use this, because it's one of the only things that's gonna work on that monster," she said, smiling at him grimly

"What about me?" Dean protested. "I don't have any bronze weapons."

Hazel smirked at him before walking over and unstrapping the dagger at her thigh. She passed it to him. Dean took it, but looked at it skeptically.

"Great, so why does Sam get a sword and I get a dagger?"

Hazel shrugged, "He's taller, Sam's gonna need the extra length."

"So, uh, we're about to get killed here," Leo said from across the clearing and Hazel snapped back to attention.

She went to stand beside her friends who were facing the north wall. The roaring of the drakon had gone quiet, but they could still hear it prowling around behind the walls of the maze, now only twenty feet away.

"How much longer do you think we have before that bastard makes an appearance?" Hazel whispered to her friends.

"Maybe ten seconds," Jason hissed back. Mentally, all of them began the countdown.

_Ten…._

_Nine…_

_Eight…_

_Seven… _

_Six…_

And then the wall to their left exploded, revealing a prehistoric monster that many had seen in museums, except this one was covered in skin and muscle. It was all shades of deep purple and black, its scales were luminescent and so shiny, Hazel was afraid that the glare would blind her. Silky translucent wings rose up higher than its back. Its forelegs were thick and stumpy and from each claw protruded needle like talons. Obsidian spikes rose up on its back, all the way up to its head. It opened its enormous maw, exposing razor sharp teeth and let loose a roar that shook the walls of the maze and plastered their hair to their foreheads.

"Son of a bitch," Dean snarled.

"Dude, your timing freaking sucks," Leo said to Jason.

"Run!" Percy yelled.

Ω

What followed after was by far the most bizarre combination of tag and hide and seek that Hazel had ever seen.

The six of them hauled ass from the campsite as fast as they could, with the monster in hot pursuit. They dashed down the pathways, the monster always only fifteen feet behind. Flying around corners, Hazel could only catch glimpses of the creature behind them.

Its jaws were dripping saliva and she feel its hot breath on the back of their legs as it gained on them. All six were running at full tilt, not even looking where they were going. All the walls looked the same anyway. The main thought was finding somewhere safe or killing the monster, and the drakon wasn't really allowing them enough time to do either.

"We can't keep going like this!" Dean yelled, as they raced around yet another corner.

_Thank you Captain Obvious, _Hazel thought grimly.

"There's a clearing up ahead, we can make some kinda stand there!" Percy called. He was a few feet ahead of the group.

The clearing he was referring to was twenty feet away and closing in.

Fifteen feet….

Ten….

Five…..

Hazel and her friends dashed into the clearing and skidded to a halt before whirling around to face their assailant. They had arrived in a clearing that resembled a gladiator arena. The walls were arranged in a circle and taller than their heads at least ten feet high and the ground was covered with sand. It was more than big enough for the drakon, and it must have realized that because it fanned out its wings as if stretching them and emitted another roar that shook the walls and made the ground shake.

The six hunters were grouped together at the other end of the arena.

Percy gripped the hilt of Riptide in both hands. "Anyone got any bright ideas?" Everyone was silent for a minute, contemplating their options.

"Don't look at me," Sam said, "We're way out of our depth here."

Hazel was only half paying attention. She knew that Nico had said that this drakon had two forms. But where was the other one?

She didn't want to know.

Dean gripped Hazel's knife. "Yeah, I may be in way over my head, but I'm not gonna hide in a hole like a scared rabbit waiting for the fox to dig me out."

Hazel nodded.

"I say we attack him together, it's our best chance of getting out of this clearing alive," she suggested. Her friends nodded.

"Ok, on three," Jason said, "One-"

"Hold up," Leo interrupted, "I'll do it, your timing sucks."

"If you don't hurry up, none of us will be doing any counting," Sam ground out through his teeth. Even then the drakon had the six of them securely in his sights and was pawing the earth like a Spanish matador.

Hazel wished she had a red flag so she could yell "Ole!" At least that would resemble some kind of plan.

The drakon for its part seemed to be waiting for them to make a move. Which was definitely not a good sign.

"On three," Leo hissed between his teeth.

"One."

"Two."

"THREE!"

Ω

The plan backfired almost immediately.

They had no sooner got within ten feet of the drakon when it opened its maw and Hazel saw a light appear at the back of its throat.

_Since when can drakons breathe fire?_ She thought. There was however, no more time to think about that because at that moment Jason yelled: "Hit the deck!"

Thankfully, this time his timing was right on the money because they had no sooner flattened themselves onto the ground of the arena when a blast of heat fried the space where they had all been standing.

"Well I sure as hell wasn't expecting that!" Dean hollered as he rolled away from the flames. He looked around for his brother and relaxed a little when he saw that Sam was over by Percy.

Hazel got to her feet, the drakon had veered somewhat away from them for some unknown reason.

She did a mental head count, making sure all her friends were alright.

Wait…..where the hell was Leo?!

"Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaw!"

Hazel was almost afraid to look. _Please tell me he's not playing cowboy, please tell me he's not playing cowboy, _she chanted over and over in her mind.

Leo was playing cowboy.

As the five hunters on the ground turned to look, they saw that Leo had somehow managed to scramble up the side of the drakon's foreleg and was riding on top of it like a cowboy at a rodeo.

_All he needs is the Stetson hat and the lariat, and he'd be good to go, _Hazel thought grimly as she and her friends ducked and wove around the drakon, searching for a weak spot.

Sam was still figuring out the ins and outs of his sword, so he wasn't paying as much attention as he probably should have.

"Sam look out!" Percy yelled. The drakon swung one of its massive claws towards Sam's head, but Percy dove and tackled Sam out of the way just in time. He helped the younger Winchester to his feet and patted his shoulder.

"You gotta be more careful bro," he said as the two dashed to get back into the fight.

"Thanks man," Sam called.

_Let's try this again, _Hazel thought as she and the rest of them dashed towards the dragon for a second time, hacking at its legs and ducking around the monster as it spewed its fiery breaths into the air.

Their resident grease monkey meanwhile, was still holding onto one of the largest spikes on the monster's neck as the drakon reared and roared like a bucking bronco.

"Crikey, he's angry!" Leo cried in what was by far the worst Aussie accent Hazel had ever heard.

"This is not the time to play Steve Irwin, Valdez!" she yelled.

Unfortunately at that moment, the drakon was able to score a hit.

Dean, who had been sneaking up by the drakon's back leg to try and reach the sensitive underbelly so as to end the fight more quickly, had forgotten to take into account the monster's spiked tail. He looked up a second too late.

With a sickening crunch, the drakon's tail smacked into him and sent him flying across the arena. He hit the wall with a crack and slumped down to the ground.

"Dean!" Sam screamed, and raced over to his brother.

For about two seconds Hazel was paralyzed. _Not Dean. Oh gods, not Dean. _It was like Frank all over again.

Hazel didn't even bother to wonder where those thoughts had come from or what was behind them, she just picked herself up and raced over to Dean. Sam was kneeling beside him.

Thankfully he was just starting to come around. There was a large cut on his forehead and his arm was bent at a weird angle. But his eyes were open and he didn't look completely out of it.

"Oh thank the gods," Hazel said breathing a sigh of relief. Sam looked up at her worriedly.

"He'll be ok right?" he asked anxiously. Hazel was struck by all the desperate hope shining in his eyes. It was clear that these two shared a bond that it would take years to understand. It was just like her connection to Jason Percy and Leo.

She was then reminded that that her three best friends were still in very real danger from the sounds of clashing metal and yelling behind them.

Hazel thought fast. "Ok, I'm going to hide the two of you now," she said. It was an idea she had been practicing for a while. She wasn't sure if it would work. But now seemed like as good a time as any to try.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, his hand still on Dean's shoulder. Hazel shook her head. "It would take too long to explain, and I gotta get back in there. I just want the two of you to wait here."

Dean shook his head and started to get to his feet. "We need to get back in there, you guys need help."

"Whoa there big boy," Hazel said putting a hand to his chest and gently pushing him back. "You aren't going anywhere right now in your condition. Sam stay with him."

"I wasn't planning on leaving," he said. Hazel nodded. She raised a hand and concentrated hard. A second later, she heard a gasp from Sam and when she looked up both brothers had disappeared completely.

"Whatever you do, don't move," she hissed.

Then she got to her feet and raced back into the fight.

Leo was somehow still holding on the drakon's back, although he looked a little seasick by this time.

Percy was keeping the monster occupied in front, and Jason had somehow snuck under the drakon's belly. He stabbed with his lance and the monster let out a loud bellow that made Hazel want to rub her temples from the pain. Blood poured from the monster's underbelly

The drakon it seemed, was unused to being outsmarted because it kept lurching this way and that as Percy fended off its blows with his sword.

Whenever it tried to breathe fire, Percy would somehow conjure up bursts of water and put its flame out. Hazel had no idea how he was doing it, but it was working. The drakon appeared to be tiring.

Hazel drew her swords as she got nearer to the monster. When she was within five feet, she ducked beneath its head and somersaulted to a standing position next to Jason.

"How's Dean?" he asked grimly as he landed another blow to the monster's underbelly.

"Holding up, what's the plan?"

"Uh….haven't exactly figured that out yet." Hazel rolled her eyes. There had to be some way they could end this.

Suddenly she felt a vast amount of energy about fifty feet directly above her. There was a large deposit of schist in the rock ceiling directly over their heads.

"Guys?" Hazel called loud enough for her friends to hear her, "I think I have a plan, but when I say get out, I mean get out alright?"

"You got it Diamonds! I'm not really enjoying the ride on Bessie here anywhere!" Leo yelled.

"You say when Hazel!" Percy hollered as he put out another one of the drakon's fires with a burst of water. He was beginning to look tired.

Hazel concentrated for all she was worth and latched onto the cool dense energy, then she mentally pulled with all her might. There was a draw on her strength, and then she heard a deafening cracking sound.

_One…._

_Two….._

_Three….._

"Out!" Hazel screamed so loudly she was sure the people miles above them could hear her. She and her friends launched themselves away from the monster. Leo had the most difficult time because of his position, but he somehow managed to do a forward flip off the back of the drakon onto the ground.

There was a tremendous crash behind and them, which knocked all four demigods to the ground with the force of the concussion. When they were able to get to their feet and look back, an enormous rock had dislodged itself from the ceiling and was pinning the drakon to the floor.

The monster appeared to be knocked out, but Hazel knew it wouldn't stay that way for long. They had to get out of there.

After making sure each other had suffered no serious injuries, Hazel waved her hand and Sam and Dean appeared once more by the wall where they had crouched before.

"How'd you do that?" Leo asked as they hustled up to the two brothers. Hazel shrugged.

"Simple magic, no big deal." Although to tell you the truth, she wasn't sure how she had done it herself. She had just envisioned a protective shield and it had appeared.

"You guys alright?" Jason asked as they neared the Winchesters.

Sam nodded, he was still looking at the enormous rock that was crushing the drakon.

"Nothing that won't be fixed after some sleep," Dean said as he tried to get up. Then he grimaced and leaned back against the wall. "Then again….maybe not."

Sam looked discouraged. Leo ran a hand through his hair, and Percy and Jason looked frustrated. Dean's wounds were extensive enough to cost them precious time, and although it had been no one's fault, the timing had sucked.

"You guys should go on without us. Find the girls, kill that bastard of a magician and get the hell out of here, Dean and I can find a way out, we always do," Sam suggested. He gave them a hopeful smile, but Hazel could see he was just putting on a brave face.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," Leo said, "we're not even sure where this magician is, and we'd be no better off if we were to leave you guys behind. We stick together." The other three nodded.

"But Dean's injuries are gonna slow us down," Sam said. Dean had been quiet throughout the whole exchange of words, and then suddenly, his face lit up. Hazel could almost see the light bulb flashing over his head.

"Unless…Hazel do you think you could do your thing again and lay some mojo on me?" Hazel raised her eyebrows. "Lay some mojo on you? Who do you think I am? A witch doctor?"

"Well, you are the only one of us who can use magic," Leo offered.

"Shut up Valdez."

"Shutting up."

Hazel assessed Dean's injuries. "I guess it's worth a try. What have we got to lose? Although you should know I've never done something like this before."

"It's ok," Dean said looking her in the eyes, "I trust you."

A warm feeling came over Hazel. It was something that she didn't understand, but it was similar to the feeling she had gotten whenever Frank had encouraged her. And Dean's words were all the encouragement she needed.

She reached out and placed a hand on Dean's arm. Then she closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could. She imagined Dean's arm whole and solid again. Every muscles repaired, every bone fused together, every tendon working to its full capacity.

Her friends gasped, and Hazel opened her eyes. Dean's arm had straightened out, and the cuts and lacerations had healed completely. Sam helped him to his feet and he stood with no problem.

"Thanks," he said quietly, looking at her.

Hazel suddenly felt shy and glanced down at her feet. That look in his eyes did uncomfortable things to her heart, it dug up issues she didn't want to address.

She was saved from having to respond when Leo broke in. "Hazel, how did you do that? You've never been able to heal people with magic before."

Hazel shrugged her shoulders. "No freaking clue, must have been the heat of battle heightening my powers or something, I don't know. But what I do know is that we need to get the hell out of dodge before that monster wakes up, or we may not be so lucky next time."

With that, the six hunters hurried out of the arena. Behind them, the drakon was already beginning to stir.

Ω

**Hey guys, I'm sorry this update took so long, there was just so much I had to cram into this chapter. We finally get to see the Winchester's and the demigods working together, and if I do say so myself, I'm liking how its turning out. Also, we'll probably be seeing more of Hazel's magic abilities in later chapters. I'm also going to explain how she was able to heal Dean using magic as well for those of you who are wondering how it happened. There is an explanation.**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, please continued to do so! I will try to have chapter 6 out next week and until then...happy reading everyone! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Finally! I can't believe its been three weeks since I last posted. So in order to make it up to you guys, here's an extra long chapter for you. I really hope you like it! Also before you start. I've gotten a few reviews that made me feel the need to clear the air about something. Let me just state it right now. There is NOTHING going on between Hazel and Dean. Are they attracted to each other? Sure. But let's be honest, there have been no women who had come across Dean Winchester and not been attracted to him. You have to be gay or dead not to be. And for his part, Dean has never come across a female hunter, so to meet one like Hazel that's beautiful, smart and an incredible fighter is new to him, that's not to say that there isn't the potential for something to happen in the future, I'm not really sure if I'll do something with the two of them, but we'll see. This also in no way belittles what Frank and Hazel had as they were still pretty young when the Giant War was being fought. But if you guys have any questions regarding Hazel and Dean, please drop and review and let me know or PM me. Anyway that all. I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

Chapter 6

No one said anything as they hurried along the maze corridors. They were all too busy making sure that they didn't trip, kept breathing, and that they didn't run into any walls.

All the barriers that prevented them from seeing the other parts of the maze and kept them sealed in on the their right and left, were engraved with intricate carvings and painted with designs Hazel had never seen before and didn't have time to look at now.

Not far off, she could hear the roaring of the underground volcano, and the ground echoed loudly beneath their feet when they ran. Thankfully they had managed to find their campsite again and retrieve their bags from where they had left them.

Off in the distance, though not far behind, they could hear the drakon roaring in defiance, seeking them. There were the sounds of his massive footfalls on the ground as he moved back and forth, shaking the walls and roaring every few minutes.

None of the six wanted to pay attention to it, but they knew it was critical if they wanted to stay one step of the bastard.

_Gods, I feel like we're a bunch of frightened deer being chased by the most badass hunting hound ever, _Hazel thought as they dashed down hallways.

"Anyone have a plan?" Leo asked absently as they raced around corners. Everything at this point had started to look the same, but no one cared, staying alive was a far more tempting prospect.

"Nothing," Sam huffed out as they all pressed on.

"Well, we can't just keep running," Dean volunteered. "That thing probably has our scents now. And there's no way in hell that we can outrun it for long!"

Hazel shot a desperate glance her friends, something had to give and soon, or they would be drakon meat. She glanced at Sam and Dean. Both had their guns slung across their backs and all of them were carrying their back packs. Both brothers looked tired but determined. Hazel's eyes drifted down to Dean's previously broken arm and how she had mended it with magic.

Suddenly she had an idea.

Hazel slid to a screeching halt and the five guys ran another twenty feet before they realized she wasn't with them and stopped.

"Hazel what are you doing? Come on, we gotta go before that drakon picks up our tail," Jason said urgently.

Hazel didn't respond. Her mind was whirling with a crazy possibility.

"I have an idea," she told them.

"Well can you discuss it while we run? The last thing I want is for my ass to be charbroiled," Dean said tapping his foot impatiently.

Hazel glanced up at him before locking eyes with Jason. He frowned and cocked his head at her, knowing she was about to say something that he wouldn't like.

"Hazel what's going on?" he asked.

Percy and Leo exchanged glances. Hazel took a deep breath.

"I can distract it, throw it off our tail long enough for us to find a hiding spot," she said.

"My ass you will," Dean growled. Hazel spared him a glance, he looked worried and Hazel suppressed a small grim smile. If he knew what she was really capable of, he wouldn't be worried at all, in fact he might be doing everything possible to get away from her.

The hardness in her will had returned. She couldn't afford to get sentimental, that was how Frank, Annabeth, Piper, and even her brother Nico had gotten themselves killed. Because they'd cared too much, felt too deeply.

It wasn't going to happen to her.

As much as loved Percy Leo and Jason, not telling them about her new powers, distancing herself…..it had all been a coping technique.

Never again would she care for someone so much that it would cost her everything if she were to lose that person.

_Nico…_

She glanced up at Jason. "I can use the Mist to distract it, throw it off our trail. Otherwise it's just a matter of time until it finds us, and we're in no condition to be fighting."

"What the hell is the Mist?" Sam asked to no one in particular.

"You cannot go out there by yourself," Dean said adamantly. His jaw was squared like he was prepared to do whatever possible to prevent her from leaving, but she knew she had the stronger will. That was one fight she knew she could win.

Hazel looked around at all of them. While none were seriously injured, they looked battered and exhausted from the exertion, stress and lack of sleep. If they didn't rest soon, fatigue might kill them.

She looked Jason in the eyes. He was the only one who would understood.

"We need a game change," she said quietly looking him squarely in the face, "you know that, and you know that I'm the only one who can do it."

After a second, Jason's eyes dropped to the ground resigned. Percy sucked in a breath, but Hazel didn't look up at him, knowing if she did, her resolve might waver. She couldn't afford that.

"How will we find you Hazel?" he asked. She sucked her teeth, glad she had thought this through before speaking up.

"I'll find you," she replied. Without waiting for him to say anything else, she stepped forward and pressed two fingers to Jason's temple. Instantly a purple fog swirled between her fingers and his head. Jason stiffened up like a board for a few seconds before the mist disappeared and he relaxed again.

"What did you do?" Percy asked glancing between her and Jason.

"I gave him a temporary empathy link," Hazel replied. "I modified it so it won't have any of the same side effects that Percy had, but it'll allow us to stay in touch."

"Like a mental cellphone?" Dean asked raising an eyebrow. The rest of them nodded slowly. Jason placed a hand to his temple and stared at the ground for a few seconds.

Finally he looked back up at her.

"Do what you gotta do Hazel," he said quietly. She nodded. The three demigods hurried away. Sam started after them. He cast a look back at her. "Be careful Hazel," he called, as if that wasn't already at the top of her priority list.

Dean didn't move however. He looked at her for a long moment. Hazel stared back. It's like the two of them were engaged in a mental clash of wills. Hazel didn't blink. It didn't matter that she couldn't read his expression, it didn't matter because there was something more important to do.

She was a Roman, and duty to one's legion even if it was small was something she and Jason understood.

"You should go," she said to him quietly.

"Hazel-"

"Go," she said firmly. The word was punctuated by the roar of the drakon, now closer. The walls shook and pebbles dislodged from them, falling to the ground.

Dean turned and hurried down the passageway after his brother.

At the end of it, he turned and looked back at her. His eyes were hard. _Be careful, _they seemed to say.

Hazel turned her back and drew the two swords from their sheaths.

She had work to do.

Ω

Jason didn't look back as he and the other four guys ran farther and farther from the spot where they had left Hazel. If he did or started to consider anything other than putting one foot in front of the other, he would turn around and go back and get her. And he knew that he couldn't do that.

He didn't know what she was going to do, but he had a feeling that it wasn't going to be good. She seemed…different. Something had happened since they rolled into town with the Mustang. He knew it had something to do with the visit from Pluto.

She had seemed…..off after it had happened. Jason knew that there was something about that visit that Hazel hadn't told him. She had an amazing poker face, but he had known her the longest and there were just some things that you couldn't hide.

And then she had pulled that golden sword…

Obviously it was a gift from Pluto, anyone could tell that, what Jason couldn't account for was why. Why would Pluto give her that weapon? He knew that the other one that she carried was Nico's and he could understand Hazel not wanting to part with it, but why match it with another?

There was obviously some bigger plan happening that involved both weapons.

And that made Jason very nervous.

Pluto's words about an apocalypse were still ringing in his ears. He knew that no one had really believed Percy's pep talk earlier about how war could be years away. They were many things as demigods, but lucky sure as hell wasn't one of them.

He had forgotten that he had turned himself on autopilot because he stumbled over a rock and plowed into Leo. The four guys ahead of him had stopped.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Suddenly the heat hit him and nearly bowled him over. When he looked up again, Jason realized that they were standing about fifty yards away from the volcano whose heat they had been feeling since they slid down the earth's esophagus into the stomach that was the maze.

It stood at least fifty stories high and it looked…..well it looked like any volcano you might see in an encyclopedia or film documentary.

It wasn't spewing lava down the sides, but the spout of it, high above them, was boiling like a soup pot. The volcano itself was obsidian black and around the rim of its spout were thin red veins of lava. It was most definitely active, but it didn't look volatile.

None of the guys had realized that they were standing at the base of it but even its fifty story height didn't reach up to the ceiling of the cavern, betraying just how deep underground they were.

Smoke was pouring out of the funnel at the top of the volcano and little grey clouds hung suspended on certain levels of it.

The volcano was a dead end, one section of the maze had been cut off completely by the sheer girth of the natural structure and all the walls around it that they could see which led back into the maze were cracked and run down. It was obvious that this volcano had been there a long time before the maze.

"Great," Dean said putting his hands on his hips, "Now what?"

Percy looked around, "we could head back into the maze," he offered. Jason shook his head, still staring at the volcano in awe.

"If we do that, then Hazel might never find us," he replied, "besides, I think we've found something that might about valuable to us."

"What are you talking about Jason?" Sam asked frowning. The son of Zeus turned to the younger Winchester.

"If that drakon somehow manages to get past Hazel, he'd never think to look for us here. Besides, we needed a place to hide out and rest up until we're back in our fighting mojo, look at us, we're about to drop. We only managed to get a few hours of sleep, and Dean and Sam didn't sleep at all."

"You want us to hide out in a volcano?" Dean asked skeptically. Jason shook his head.

"Not in the volcano. Do you see those crevices and openings farther up embedded in the volcano face?"

They all looked at what he was pointing at. Sure enough about halfway up, openings and fissures in the brimstone appeared.

Percy squinted, "Are those caves?" Sam nodded, "It sure looks like it. Over time, some of the rock must have eroded to a point where it created caves and fissures in the brimstone deep enough for someone to hide."

"Exactly," Jason replied. "They should be big enough for us to hide out until Hazel can join us, and hot enough that we can get some sleep."

"Great," Dean said, "And what if one of us puts one foot the wrong way and we happen to fall through the cracks into the volcano?"

Jason turned to his friends. "Leo, that's where you come in."

The son of Hephaestus looked confused. "Me bro? What are you talking about?" Jason smiled and folded his arms across his chest.

"This is your area of expertise, right?" Leo turned and looked at the volcano which was spewing smoke and lava a little more violently now. He nodded. "What do you want me to do?"

Jason took a step forward, assessing the structure. "Leo over the past two years, you've managed to not only use fire in combat, but detect it when it might be harmful to you right?"

Leo frowned, "Yeah but it's not an exact science, it's not like I can enter a room with a fireplace and scream at it, "You're dangerous, be gone!" Jason rolled his eyes.

"That's not what I meant, fire has become your underground, just like Hazel, you can tell when there's a source nearby and avoid it if it might be harmful."

Leo nodded hesitantly.

"Good, because that's what I want you to do now. If we get anywhere near harmful on this volcano, you'll be able to detect it and we can avoid it."

"I don't know, it sounds like we're just trading one danger for another," Dean said. Jason turned to face the Winchesters.

"Right now, I'd take an active volcano over a bloodthirsty monster. One we can predict, the other, we can't. Plus, I don't want to go too far that we can't find Hazel."

"Don't you have that mental link though?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, but what good is that if we're stumbling around in the maze? Everything looks the same down here. But if we stay near this volcano, she has a better chance of finding us, because it can be seen from miles around."

"Either a volcano or a monster?" Sam asked sighing, "I can't believe how screwed up our lives are that that even makes sense." Dean snorted.

"Aright," the elder Winchester replied, "What have we got to lose?"

"Nobody answer that," Percy said looking around at all of them. Jason glanced at Leo who was still looking at the volcano.

"You're up Valdez," he said clapping his friend on the shoulder. Leo sucked air between his teeth like he always did when he was thinking and spun on his heel to face the small group.

"Alright kids listen up. Before we get started, Fire Marshall Leo has a few rules I gotta lay down."

Ω

Hazel could almost feel the sweat sliding down the back of her neck. She gripped the two blades tighter and edged farther back into the maze. She pressed her back to one of the walls, head tilted back, eyes closed as she tried to decide what she would do next. The walls around her were tall and she could see the intricate engravings carved into their surfaces.

The lighting in the maze was dim and the torches placed on the walls were the only source of illumination that she could see. The ground beneath her feet was ashy and listed aimlessly when she moved it with her foot. The scent of fresh earth was heavy on the air and Hazel could almost feel her own heart pounding.

The drakon had ceased its roaring, but try as it might, it couldn't erase signs of it completely, and she could still feel the vibrations of its feet echoing on the floor. Her palms were slightly sweaty. Hazel knew she was near it.

She stopped and concentrated hard, remembering the spell she had been practicing. Closing her eyes for a few brief seconds Hazel willed a mist to rise from the stones to descend from the heights above, willed the air around her to thicken and darken.

When she opened her eyes it was done. Her limbs felt a little heavier, but now she could barely see them, covered as they were in a weighty fog.

She had covered herself in a grey mist so it appeared as if she were no more than a vapor moving over the ground.

_That's better, _she thought. The drakon would never see her coming. She obviously knew that there was no way to kill it until it had merged with its second form but maybe she could buy her friends some time.

Nico had said she was the only one who could kill it, but what he had failed to say was why. Why was it so important that only a child of the underworld could kill this beast? If this magician intended to raise Gaea then he should be the principle target.

Instead they were running around in this oversize rat's cage trying to stay one step ahead of an ancient monster that was so old and powerful it existed in two forms. Nothing could happen until they killed the beast and that made Hazel angry.

She jerked slightly when she heard the sound of footfalls nearby. They were heavy and caused the ground to vibrate.

Hazel glanced down at her hands which were gripped around the hilts of her swords tightly.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped out from behind the wall where she had been hiding turned the corner into a four way clearing and came face to face with the drakon.

Except this one was different.

The monster had no wings and was a dark evergreen and silvery grey color. Its scales were as luminescent as the other beasts but it was slightly smaller and the shiny grey spikes on its back were shorter than the obsidian spikes on the other. And unlike its other form, it had no wings.

Hazel frowned looking at them. Curious, she raised a hand and concentrated. Immediately, she felt the vibrations between the protrusions on its back and her. They were pure silver.

_How odd, _she thought.

The monster had stopped moving and its great head was raised into the air as if it were searching for a scent. _Their scent, _Hazel realized with horror. She had to get moving.

Without even taking a second to think about it, she launched herself at the drakon, blade aimed for one of its eyes. She scored a hit when her sword sank hilt deep into its eye.

There was an awful squishing sound and Hazel threw herself into a backflip off of its body. The monster roared in pain and began rearing its head this way and that trying to find the unknown attacker. Blood was gushing from its wounded eye and Hazel bent down and wiped monster gore from her blade into the soil. She hoped the guys were far enough away that they hadn't heard that.

She had no idea where they had gone but it didn't matter. If worse came to worse, Jason could fly above the maze and see her easily.

What mattered now was distracting this creature. If it was being controlled by the magician then there wasn't much she could do.

She had certainly seemed to have done just that because the drakon was stumbling around in the clearing, roaring and bumping into walls, knocking them over. Then all of a sudden it stopped.

Hazel watched in disbelief as the bleeding from its eye stopped, the flesh wound began to shimmer and then closed up altogether, and then it was as if nothing had ever happened.

Hazel cursed quietly. She knew as long as the two forms were separated there wasn't much she could do in the way of damage.

So Hazel stopped thinking about it, thinking about everything. Instead she remembered her spell and praying it would work, walked forward and stared into the drakon's face knowing it couldn't see her but also knowing that she had to look into its eyes for the spell to work.

When it turned its head back to hers she had to suppress the urge to step back. She was gazing into large white pupil less eyes.

There is something about looking into a face that is unfocused that is wholly disturbing, and even on an animal, it can cause unease.

Hazel swallowed hard, as the drakon, unseeing stared at her. She didn't know if it was blind or this was simply the way that its eyes were formed but it was obvious that it knew some kind of presence was there, because it stopped moving altogether and simply stared at her.

That's when things began to get even more bizarre. The drakon opened its enormous maw, but instead of roaring a dark mist swirled from its gaping jaws, pouring to the floor and rising and solidifying into the form of a man.

Hazel flinched when she realized she was staring into the face of a holographic projection of the very magician who had imprisoned them in the maze. Somehow he had managed to manipulate his flesh to appear in one place when the rest of him was at another location.

It was a spell with extreme significance. Something she had never been able to do before and was a little envious of.

"I know you're there, daughter of Pluto," the projection of the magician said. "I may not be able to see you but every magic user knows when another is nearby."

Hazel didn't see what the good was in acknowledging that she was there, so she kept her silence. The image went on as if it hadn't noticed the lack of response.

"It's a really a shame that Alcyoneus couldn't turn you. You would have been such a gift to our side. You have no idea how powerful you are and I would have counted myself lucky to fight alongside you. You're nothing like your friends Hazel Levesque. You are far more powerful than they are."

_What the hell is he talking about? _Hazel wondered. She had always felt like the weakest of the seven, being the youngest and all. Percy Jason, Frank Leo Annabeth, and even her brother Nico had all been more confident, more able to use their powers then her. Even Piper had had this confidence in her charm speak that Hazel found enviable. They had all been more powerful than her.

"You Hazel, are far more powerful than you think you are. You would be of great use to Gaea.

I know you think that a world without Gaea is a world at peace, but you're wrong. Outside of this hovel, is evidence to the contrary. All I want is for the world to be taken in hand, where the Gods have made a mess. And if it doesn't happen, there is a prisoner in your father's domain who will help me do just that."

_So it's true, _Hazel thought.

Her father was harboring a captive that was so dangerous and powerful that it would spell doom if he was released. She made a mental note to ask her father as soon as she got out of there. If she got out of there that was.

"Of course," the magician said walking back and forth in his holographic projection, "I may not have to free this prisoner, if you give me what I want. I would much prefer not to have to break him out. He's bloodthirsty and ruthless and unpredictable. But I suppose being stuck in a cage for thousands of years will do that to you.

So you see, you're really fighting a losing battle. Whether you give me what I want or not, I'm going to win."

Hazel wanted to scream at his arrogance, but there was something about the way he was delivering these lines, almost as if he had had a lot of time to say them, which made her wonder whether or not he had been in the second Giant war at all, and had simply spent the period biding his time, waiting to see which side would succeed before he made an appearance. Now that the giants had been defeated, she assumed he felt the need to step in and clean up the mess where the giants had failed. Hazel wondered for a moment if she should reveal herself and call his arrogance for what it was because she knew he was trying to convert her to his side. But she kept her silence and maintained the spell. Revealing herself would only be dangerous anyway.

"I'd prefer not to have to kill more then I need to, and the virgin girls' blood will only get me so far. It's pure but not pure enough. You see Hazel Levesque, your blood would be ideal. I don't even need the blood of your friends. You are a child of the underworld, so death would be strongest and closest to what the earth mother needs in order to come back to life."

_Why is it that she will never leave me alone?! Raising Alcyoneus killed me and my mother, it cost me sixty years in the underworld and now she wants me to raise her again!_

"Ah, quiet as ever I see. Well I'll leave you alone to think about it. Know this…..I am not a patient man, but I do know how to make deals. If you agree to relinquish yourself to Gaea, I will let your friends live. When she rises I will allow them to escape to their own separate domains where they may live their lives free of battle and pain and strife. But if you do not, you're signing the death warrants for all of you. And that's a choice I wouldn't want someone to make for me."

He looked like he was about to say more but by this time Hazel had had enough. She drew her swords and slashed through the mist causing the magician to disappear in a shower of purple spray. The drakon growled at her, it was almost as if it could see through her mist right where she was standing. But even though it was angry, Hazel was furious. She summoned her will and latched onto the pure silver spikes on the drakons back before using her mind to throw the drakon into the wall. It lay there for a minute, stunned and Hazel growled. This drakon was obviously weaker than its twin and she needed to focus on something else other than the magician's words or she would go nuts.

And right now, she had to distract this drakon before it started after her friends. Already it was struggling to its feet, heading in the direction they had gone.

There would be time to think on what he had said later. Right now, it was time to call on all of her abilities and manipulations.

Time to go to work.

Ω

"Wait right there," Leo said as he turned back to them. He was in the lead and a painstaking half an hour had passed before they were a quarter of the way up the side of the volcano. Fortunately it looked like they wouldn't have to go much higher because already caves carved out of sheer rock and brimstone were starting to emerge.

Dean focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The last thing he wanted to do was trip, tumble back down the mountain and undo all of Hazel's effort.

Hazel….

God was she a piece of work or what? Dean had absolutely no idea what to make of her. All the women he had hit on in the past were fast and easy and very simple to read. They only wanted one thing and he was quite happy to oblige.

Hazel was neither fast nor easy and she was the first female hunter he had ever met. To top it all off, she was gorgeous. Being beautiful smart and a badass hunter was a deadly combination that was sure to drive him crazy before he could figure her out.

But there was an almost hollow look in her eyes, in all of their eyes actually. Like they had seen too many battles, faced too many monsters and knew that one day their numbers would be up and they would face a creature that would ultimately destroy them.

Hazel's being a daughter of the God of Hell would know that better than anyone.

Which made her entirely out of his league.

Dean watched the other guys as he brought up the rear as they walked up the mountainside. They had only been working together for a day or so, but he had a funny feeling that if it came right down to it, that he could trust these guys with his life.

Their backs were all against the wall with that bastard of a magician and his pet monsters, but Dean knew he could trust these guys to watch his back. He and Sam would have been monster chow if it hadn't been for them, as the Winchesters were way out of their league.

"You alright?" Percy asked falling into step behind him. Dean blinked and glanced at the son of Poseidon. Out of all of the demigods, Percy seemed the most like him.

He did what was necessary, was a badass fighter, had a wicked sense of humor like Leo and was overprotective of his family, just like Dean was with Sam.

"Yeah, just this is a lot to take in. Me and Sam…..we've never come across anything like this before, so we're way out of our depth and now we've split up."

"Hazel will be alright," Percy said, but Dean got the feeling that he was trying to reassure himself of that too.

"So, help me out here, what made you guys decide to start doing something like this? I mean this isn't exactly a nine to five job with a regular salary."

Percy rubbed the side of his face.

"Well, let's just say, we were involved in a job a couple years ago and at the time, there were seven of us." Dean raised an eyebrow. "I take it things didn't end well."

Percy shook his head. His green eyes were sad and full of memory. Dean was suddenly reminded of the way Sam looked when something happened on a job that they couldn't account for and that was out of their control.

"Their names were Annabeth, Frank and Piper. We had two other girls with us, surprising I know," Percy said when Dean raised an eyebrow.

"I take it that these guys were more than just friends," Dean said, feeling a surprising empathy come over him. Again Percy nodded.

"We got the job done, but they all died in the process. It hit Hazel the hardest I think because she lost both her boyfriend and her brother in the fighting."

Dean swallowed hard. He could understand what that was like. Dad had been gone for about three years now and the feeling was still pretty fresh. It was never something you got over.

"Is that why she is the way she is?" Dean asked. Percy frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Dean bit his lip, trying to think of the right thing to say.

Hazel seemed like a hard book to read, and the way she was so aloof all the time, served to heighten his curiosity of her even more. She was wicked beautiful, but there was a whole hell of a lot more to her then that.

"I guess, she just seems hard to read. I get why now though. That's rough man, I'm sorry. Sam and I can understand what that's like. We lost our Dad in this fight too."

Percy winced in sympathy. He couldn't identify with the loss of a parent, but he knew that Hazel Leo and Jason could.

It was the same for all of them, they'd all lost people close to them and Dean was beginning to understand their new friends better.

"I think we can stop here compadres," Leo called out ahead of them. He and Jason had come to a halt about ten yards away. They were standing at the mouth of a cave with a low overhang so you really had to be looking in order to see it.

Leo ducked beneath the rock ceiling to take a better look inside, and Dean turned around to see a view of the entire maze stretching out before them. They could see everything for miles.

"You might not need that empathy link Jason," Sam noted. The blonde nodded in agreement, but he looked worried. Even from this distance, they couldn't see the drakon.

In fact, the whole cavern had grown unnaturally quiet. It was a little unnerving because apart from the rumble of the volcano, there wasn't a sound to be heard for miles around.

And that wasn't a good sign.

"We're all clear in here," Leo called, his voice bouncing off the rock walls and echoing down into the cavern.

"Keep it down Valdez!" Percy hissed, "You don't want that drakon to find us do you?" Leo stuck his head out looking a little sheepish.

"Sorry," he said. He beckoned them inside. Jason took one last look around, pursing his lips as he did so before he and Percy followed the Winchesters into the cave.

It was surprisingly spacious inside. The ceilings were high enough that one could stand in them, and not as hot as they expected. It was warm but not stifling. The cave extended backwards for about thirty feet, and at the end of it, they could see a faint glow.

"I wouldn't go towards the light if I were you," Leo said, an impish grin on his face and Sam sniggered. "It leads toward the interior of the volcano and if you go too far back, you'll fall off the edge into the lava."

"Good to know," Jason said dropping his back pack at the mouth of the cave just behind a large rock. He sat down and after propping the bag against the wall, leaned back against it so he could see out of it and over the maze. The overhang was just low enough that he could see out, but no one else could see in.

"Good choice, man," He said to Leo. Valdez inclined his head. "I try, and the good thing about this hideout is that we can start a fire without being worried about anyone else seeing us."

"Alright, but I think food can wait for right now, we just ate a couple of hours ago," Dean said. "Why don't the rest of you guys get some sleep, I'll keep watch."

He caught Jason's eye. The blonde pursed his lips and ran a hand through his hair.

"Dean you're not a machine, you and Sam haven't gotten any sleep and I have a feeling that we're gonna be here for a little while. We need to plan some strategy, because this running around the maze waiting for the danger to find us is not working. But we can talk strategy when all of us are here."

Dean inhaled through his teeth and a look passed between him and Jason. "You sure?" he asked. Jason nodded.

"Everyone's running on fumes right now, and besides, I'm the only who will be get to Hazel if there's any trouble."

Dean nodded and the others lay down, heads resting on their packs. Within minutes, everyone but Jason was fast asleep.

Ω

Hazel concentrated hard. She was perched halfway up the wall staring at the drakon. The ensuing scuffle that had occurred after the magician's speech had tired both of them out and by now, Hazel was breathing hard, and angry as hell. Convincing it to go in another direction then where they were so as to allow her and her friends to get some much needed rest, come up with a plan and find this magician before he woke Gaea again, was no easy task and she wasn't completely convinced that it would work.

Hazel didn't have charm speak like Piper, but she knew she had to be her most convincing.

She tried not to think about what he had said as she pondered what to do. She knew if she considered his words, she might start to believe them and if she started to believe them, she may be tempted to listen to him. And she knew he was a liar.

Gaea had said the same thing to Percy before he came to Camp Jupiter, and the same thing to her when she had been trapped in earth in Alaska. The goddess had tried to trick her with visions of Sammy so she wouldn't complete her quest.

_It's not gonna happen, _Hazel thought to herself, _there's a new queen of the earth in town and she isn't taking orders from anybody._

With that she stopped thinking and simply acted. Hazel snapped her fingers. Together with Leo, she had defeated the sorceress Pasiphae. She would not be outdone or bullied into submission by a son of Hecate who might better at magic then she.

Hazel was so frustrated that in that moment, she released the spell concealing her, it was just slowing her down anyway.

The second she became visible, the monster saw her, roared and she could see a light at the back of its throat, signaling the onslaught of fire.

She didn't even think, as liquid fire poured from the monster's tongue, Hazel leaped from her place on the wall and landed high up on its neck. The drakon thrashed and reared trying to shake her off, but Hazel locked her legs around its neck and gripped the spike in front of her tightly.

Then she placed her hands against the sides of the drakons skull. A humming filled the air as Hazel began to impose her spell on it. She simply wanted it to sleep, because she highly doubted she would be able to knock it unconscious. And because she was too exhausted to do more. Trying to evade a drakon in a small space was tiring enough but when you were also using your powers to keep it away from while at the same time trying to cast a spell, well….let's just say that Hazel was pretty worn out.

Finally the drakon stilled under her touch and Hazel allowed a grim smile because the spell was working.

There was a massive draw on her strength and suddenly the drakon went limp. It dropped to the floor and Hazel fell off and skidded across the clearing. She slid into the opposite wall with a crack and even though she could tell she hadn't broken any bones, it was still enough to knock the wind out of her.

After a few minutes, she got to her feet and hobbled back over to the drakon. Its eyes were closed and a light smoke was coming from its nostrils, and Hazel knew the spell at worked.

She sighed relieved. Now it was just a matter of what she and her friends could accomplish in the next few hours. Hopefully all of what they wanted to happen would happen.

Hazel smiled grimly and hurried back into the maze. Her smile faded as soon as she lost sight of the monster, and she quickened her pace. She knew she had only bought them a few hours. Before long the magician was sure to notice that one of his pets was inactive and would return from wherever the hell he was holed up to check on it.

As she hurried back through the maze Hazel couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. Her magic was great when it actually worked. Hecate had told her that even though she wasn't her child, she was one of the most powerful magic users in a long time. There were times when Hazel doubted that though.

Like she told Dean, it was only something she could use in combat and not at her leisure, and even then it was hit and miss. The magic seemed to go off of her emotions. If she was feeling especially angry, things would happen that she wouldn't intend, like an object next to her bursting into flames. There were times when she could control it, but they were few and far between. She was astonished when she had been able to heal Dean's arm without there being any horrible side effects.

And speaking of her friends…..

Hazel closed her eyes and pressed two of her fingers to her temple. She cast her thoughts out as far as she could around her, searching for the touch of Jason's mind.

The instant she touched it, she mentally pulled back. It was as if she had been shocked with static electricity.

_Jason, _she said, _it's me, where are you guys?!_

_Hazel? Thank the gods! Are you alright?_

_Yeah, I'm fine, tell me where you guys are and I'll come meet you, _she replied. There was a pause.

_Do you see a plume of smoke rising in the distance?_ Hazel looked up and saw that there was indeed a large column of smoke rising in the air.

_Yes, I see it,_ she replied.

_Head in that direction, we're by the volcano._

Hazel shook her head, feeling a little bewildered. But at least he had given her a very difficult to miss focal point. The smokestack was so high, she was sure it could be seen for miles, which was as large as the maze surely was.

As she walked, Hazel pondered the magician's words. It wasn't the first time she had been asked to join an enemy side. Her talent for precious metals had made her of considerable value, pun intended, to Alcyoneus in the second giant war. Only that time she had been faced with the ugly prospect of returning to the underworld.

This time it was slightly different. There was no unknown prospect to defeating this magician because death didn't need to be released.

But then there was this prisoner to contend with…

Hazel had absolutely no idea who on earth this prisoner could be. If he was anything like Gaea though, they were in trouble. And the magician had mentioned a cage…..

What was that all about? The Underworld already was a cage, so why did a prisoner have to be in a cage inside of a cage? It didn't make sense.

Nico had been to the underworld several times as well as to Tartarus and he had never told her about a prisoner being so bad that he had to be caged twice.

That would mean that her dad was keeping secrets, because he was the only other one who could possibly know who this monster was.

Hazel had to remind herself that now was not the time for deep thinking, she had to find her friends and then come up with a plan to kill the magician and get the hell out of here. So many things they had to do and yet no idea how to accomplish them.

As she ran, Hazel began to strategize plans in her mind. Every time she looked up, the volcano was always toward her and coming steadily nearer. She didn't notice when the walls of the maze around her began to wear down and crumble as if the closer to the volcano they were the more powerless they became.

Finally she slid to a halt in front of the largest indoor volcano she had ever seen. Actually this was the only indoor volcano she had ever seen. It must have been forty stories high, but the top of it was not encased in snow like an outdoor volcano would have been. There were thin red veins of lava running down the sides and the smell of molten rock was heavy on the air. She could just barely see the top of it and it was obvious that while it wasn't volatile and ready to spew lava everywhere, it wasn't dormant either.

Hazel eyed the massive structure with disbelief. The sheer girth of it had blocked off one side of the maze completely and was built directly into the rock wall at its back, a wall that went up so high she could no longer see it. It simply disappeared into the dark.

The wall behind the volcano was sheer rock and Hazel couldn't even see how someone could climb it. If she had been closer maybe there would have been a way, but she decided not to focus on that for now.

_Ok, I'm here, _she called. _Jason where are you guys?_

Suddenly she saw a small figure on the lower left side of the volcano emerge from a dark overhang of rock and begin waving to her.

Hazel grinned. Leave it to Jason to pick the most conspicuous meeting point in this entire cavern to hide. Then again it was also the most inconspicuous because no one hunting them would even think to look there, including a drakon.

Hazel hurried toward the slope and was nearly bowled over by a wave of heat when she reached the base of the volcano. She stopped to wipe the sweat from her forehead, marveling at hot it was.

For the next fifteen minutes, Hazel picked her way painstakingly over the rocks and brimstone as she made her way towards the cave. It was hard rough work, and at least a dozen times, she stumbled and scraped her hands on the stones, and then she had to pick herself up and go at it again. As she got farther up the slope, the rocks began to get harder and sharper, more pointed so it became more and more of a climb and less of an upward stroll. She also knew if she were to fall and land on one of those sharp pointed rocks it would first be lights out and then perhaps a punctured lung or severed artery or worse.

_Let's not think about that, _Hazel thought as she nearly stumbled again. A long time passed before she looked up again and muscles shaking from the effort, hauled herself to the front of the cave where Jason was waiting for her.

He put his arms around her in a quick wordless hug and she gratefully responded for one minute. Then she couldn't indulge herself any longer. She took a deep breath and let go, trying to release the shaking in her muscles.

"You alright?" Jason asked quietly. He looked concerned and for a moment, Hazel wanted to pour out her problems to him, to have that relationship back where she could tell him everything just like it had been back at Camp Jupiter.

But she couldn't bring herself to talk about what the magician had said, what Nico had said, hell even what her dad had said. In the past week, since they had arrived in Silver Creek Indiana, Hazel had had more dream conversations then she ever wanted to and learned more about the future then she was sure was necessary.

She was also more powerful then she had ever been before and at the risk of sounding horribly cliché, she knew that with great power came great responsibility. That would be something Leo would have said.

So instead of pouring out her problems and fears like she had done in the past with Frank, Hazel pasted on her poker face and said: "I'm fine."

The look Jason gave her told her, that he wasn't believing her bull for a second, so before he could press, she spoke up again.

"Is everyone asleep?" she asked. Jason nodded, still carrying his worried expression. Hazel didn't want to look at his face for fear that her will would crumble so she simple ducked under the rock over hang and stepped into the cave.

It looked exactly like she expected it to look. It was pretty dim inside except for a faint light at the back of the chamber. Everyone was bundled up on the floor, heads resting on their bags. Hazel felt her lips tug upwards ever so slightly. Looking at them all now, no one would know what they had been through. Leo's mouth was open and a slight snore was emanating throughout the chamber. Percy's head was buried beneath his arms like he was in hibernation and Sam and Dean were tucked up in a fetal position, heads almost touching their knees.

If anyone else had looked on the scene, this would have appeared no different than a camping trip.

Hazel felt some hysterical laughter rising in her throat and with an effort, she swallowed it. What she would give to be on a regular camping trip right now.

Jason, who had followed her into the cave and stood beside her, watching her reaction, frowned at her, concerned.

"Are you alight?" he asked. Hazel blinked and came out of the preoccupied state she was in. She nodded.

"Why don't you get some rest now? I'll keep watch for a bit." Jason's frown deepened. "Are you sure?" She nodded.

"I'm kind of running on adrenaline right now, and I'm too wired to sleep, once I calm down I'll be fine, but for right now, I'll be more alert then you."

Jason thought about this for a moment. Then after conceding that she was right, he walked to the back of the cave where his back pack was, lay down with his head resting on it and was fast asleep within minutes.

Ω

Hazel leaned with her back against the cave wall so she could see out of it and into the maze beyond. The lighting in the entire cavern was dim. There were torches strategically placed along the walls of the maze, and she was sure that they had been put there by the magician. If you went too fast or didn't look where you were going you could run into some serious trouble.

A couple hours had passed and Hazel was embarrassed to admit that she had drifted off a few times herself. It was just so warm inside of the cave that she found her eyelids kept drooping. However all the little power naps she had managed to catch had done the trick and when she opened her eyes again, she felt completely refreshed.

Hazel was thankful that they all had good vision or they would have been goners right now. From this vantage point, the maze looked like one of those haunted attractions you might experience on Halloween….except this one was real and crawling with dangerous monsters.

She sighed, the magician's words coming back to her. What did it all mean? She wasn't going to dare take him at his word. But his plans to wake Gaea? She shuddered at the possibilities. Being a son of Hecate he had obviously found a way to speed up the entire process and it was just their luck that he wouldn't need to raise any of the giants first for that to happen. All he needed was blood…..her blood.

So now Hazel knew his end game.

Now what on earth was she going to do about it?

The magician wasn't likely to leave them alone for long enough to formulate a strategy. Hazel thought about the girls he had kidnapped and felt a stab of guilt. Every second they spent down here was another girl killed for their blood to wake the earth mother.

Maybe she should take the magician up on his offer. After all better one person suffer then many…..

Then she shook her head. If she was alone, she wouldn't have thought twice, and even though Jason was a Roman, he wouldn't condone this, especially when the magician really hadn't given them any leverage to guarantee what he said was true.

What the hell were they going to do?

They had no idea where they were and Hazel had no idea how to follow the trail of magic and find him. She had a feeling they had been over the entire maze and had found nothing except broken bones and bruises.

There was something they were missing. Some possibility they weren't considering. And Hazel had a feeling that if something didn't change it was only a matter before one of the drakons caught them off guard and they went down in the fighting.

_Don't think like that, _she told herself, _you've faced a lot worse than this and come out of it. You and your friends defeated Gaea once before, you can do it again!_

But Hazel wasn't sure if she could do it at the cost of losing more of her family. It had nearly killed her when Frank Piper, Annabeth and Nico had fallen. She glanced around at her friends who were out cold, oblivious to the world.

No, Hazel couldn't do it. Her dad had told her that war was coming and that humans would be included. It may concern Gaea, but she was more inclined to think that it had more to do with that prisoner Nico had told her that it was rattling its cage down in the Underworld. She shuddered when she wondered just what kind of monster this was, and if it was worse than Gaea a primordial goddess, what chance in hell did she and her friends have against it?

Frustrated with the direction her thoughts had taken, and the fact that they were going around in circles, Hazel picked up a small rock lying on the cave floor and launched it at the opposite wall. It connected with the stone with a sharp crack and dropped down to the floor bouncing along the ground until it came to a stop near Dean's head.

He flinched in his sleep and sat up immediately, looking around wildly for a fight. His eyes landed on Hazel and she winced.

"You're back," he said looking a little surprised. Hazel nodded, suppressing a grimace.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." The older Winchester yawned and shook his head waving off her apology.

"Don't worry about it, I feel pretty good actually. A power nap was all I needed to get my mojo back," he said smiling at her. Hazel felt her lips tug upwards slightly. It was hard to be completely serious around Dean.

"How's your arm?" she asked glancing down at his previously damaged limb. Dean stretched out his arm, flexing it.

"It feels great," he replied. "Like I never broke it." Hazel nodded. "Good."

Dean leaned back against the cave wall mirroring her position. He looked like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure how to bring it up. Hazel frowned.

"Is something wrong?"

Dean shook his head, but still looked slightly pensive. "It's just, I'm trying to figure out why you of all people would choose this life. Percy already told me that something happened in the past with the four of you and you couldn't stay where you were, but how do you go from safety to this?"

Hazel pursed her lips and thought about what he had said. There was no beating around the bush with Dean Winchester that was for sure.

"We had a job to finish," she replied. "It was too hard to stay where we were with constant memories around to remind us that our friends were gone. Plus in the after math of the battle, hundreds of monsters escaped, and we had a responsibility to track them all down and send them back to the Underworld. Percy was the first one to decide to leave seeing as how his girlfriend had died and the place where we were staying held too many memories.

We volunteered to go with him because we didn't want him to do the job alone and we'd lost a lot too, Jason lost his girlfriend as well, and I….." she trailed off and didn't finish, a grimace coloring her pretty face one shade darker.

"Well let's just say I lost a lot of important people too," she finished finally.

"Like your brother," Dean said. Hazel turned to him absolutely incredulous. She hadn't even mentioned her dream visit from her brother to Jason, how on earth could Dean possibly know about Nico?

"How did you-" but she was stopped when Dean nodded at Percy. Hazel sighed, her shoulders slumping.

"No secrets when you're among friends, isn't that how the saying goes?" she muttered. She wasn't angry exactly but she didn't really know Dean well enough to figure out what a response from him could be.

So it kind of surprised her when he didn't say anything. He just sat there with her quietly until the awkward feeling had passed. Hazel was actually glad that he hadn't said a word, because any condolences he might have offered would have felt forced and halfhearted. She had grown sick of hearing the words, "I'm sorry."

"How did he die?" Dean asked quietly. Hazel let out a deep breath and turned to look outside of the cave watching for any threats in the distance. She didn't dare look at Dean for fear that her composure would break.

"The last job we had….was bigger and tougher than any of us expected, and in order to kill this type of monster, demigods and the Olympians had to fight alongside each other. Nico and I were facing down a giant with the help of our father Hades. I had been injured but there was no way I could stop fighting to bind up my injuries.

It all happened so quickly, because of my bleeding leg I couldn't move quite as fast. I managed to somersault beneath its legs and hamstring it so it couldn't rise. Unfortunately it was still pretty fast and was still holding its spear. I turned quickly in time to see it run Nico through with its spear. He died fighting it."

Hazel felt her voice begin to get a little rough and she figured she had better take a minute and compose herself or the tears might come and there would be nothing more humiliating then that. She hadn't cried since their funeral two years ago and even though each day was getting a lot easier and she had healed a lot of the loss, she knew she would never be one hundred percent completely better. You never completely recovered from the loss of a sibling, and Nico had been Hazel's only family.

"So what happened?" Dean's voice broke in quietly, and Hazel realized she had gotten lost in memories. She blinked and resumed telling her tale.

"Well….it was a shock, it's almost like everything happened in slow motion after that. I saw Nico fall, but there was no time for me to go to him because at that moment, the giant had focused on me again. But by this time I had gone nuts, and it was like I hadn't even been injured. I attacked him which I think surprised him because he wasn't expecting it. I managed to scramble up one of his legs, and stab him in the jugular and by that time, it was all over. He fell and I jumped off and ran to Nico. He died in my arms."

Hazel heard Dean suck in a breath, but she didn't look back at him. She felt hollow all of a sudden, like she'd just been tipped up and emptied out of whatever she had been holding onto. It wasn't an especially nice feeling, but at the same time, she felt….lighter.

"What was he like?" Dean asked quietly. He had changed the subject away from Nico's death had Hazel felt the tension ease in her chest. She breathed a little easier after that.

Hazel glanced down at the now gold skull ring on her right hand and twisted it. It and the sword strapped to her back were the only things she had of his.

Nico, ah…..Nico was a bit of a loner," She said, a slight chuckle catching in her voice because in that area, they had been polar opposites. Hazel had always loved being around her friends, Percy and Frank and Jason especially, whereas Nico had never stayed long enough in either camp to make any friends.

"He kept to himself, never stayed anywhere for too long. He didn't make a lot of friends, in fact, the four of us were as probably the only people he could call friends. He was constantly running errands for our father, and after the death of his sister-" She broke off because Dean looked a little confused.

"I'm Nico's half-sister, we didn't have the same mom. The gods are famous for their trysts with humans, especially Zeus. The funny thing about the Gods is that their children rarely meet and that they never stay anywhere for long. My mother raised me by herself. I can count the number of times on one hand that I've seen my father in my lifetime. That's the thing with the Olympians, they don't have relationships with their children, its taboo or something like that. So the only thing you have left to rely on are the other children the gods have sired and what little family you have."

She glanced pointedly at Leo, Percy and Jason.

"Yeah, I can understand what that's like," Dean mused, half to himself, half to her. Hazel glanced up at him, and he must have seen the question in her eyes because he gave a strange laugh and rubbed the side of his face wryly.

"Sam and me, we were raised on the road by our dad. Our mom was killed by a demon when we were little and dad spent his whole life hunting it to get his revenge. He raised us to be hunters and even though he raised us, he was never around us long enough so we could get to know him. He drank too much, and he was basically our general instead of Dad."

Hazel watched Dean carefully as he talked. When he was speaking about his life with his father or rather lack thereof, he seemed to draw himself inwards, as if he was afraid of anyone getting too close. And when he talked about Sam, he seemed to open up a little bit. Even the gestures he made with his hands were smoother and more relaxed. It was obvious from the way that he talked that Sam was really all he had and vice versa and that the two would do anything for each other because they were all they had left.

She was amazed at how alike Dean and Nico were. Aside from a few select people, they were almost loners and fiercely independent. Hazel knew that even though she had only known Nico for about a year before the giant war, he would do anything for her and the same was true in the opposite view.

"Anyway, Dad made it his life's mission to track down the bastard that killed Mom, and he expected us to kind of be just like him in that respect," Dean continued.

"Did you eventually kill it?" Hazel asked curiously. Dean nodded, "A couple of years ago, Sammy and I were still teenagers when it happened and Dad died killing it." He said these last words with his eyes downcast, and Hazel felt a surprising twinge of empathy for him. She knew how hard it was to lose a parent.

She also knew how difficult it was to go about your life knowing that you'll never see them again. She had given up Elysium so her mother wouldn't have to suffer eternal punishment. And then when Nico had brought her back and dropped her off at Camp Jupiter, she had been ecstatic to find that she had more living family. Then he had died again…

"But enough angst for now, how the hell are we supposed to find this magician and get out of here?" Dean asked. His almost vulnerable expression had completely disappeared and the let's get er' done attitude was back.

"Good question," someone said, loud enough which caused Hazel, even with all of her training to flinch.

She looked up to see that Percy was awake. As usual his hair was a mess and his eyes were slightly cloudy with sleep. He got up and walked over to them being careful not to wake Jason, Sam and Leo and sat down next to Hazel.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked. Hazel gave him a half smile. "Just reminiscing," she replied.

Then she frowned, and before Percy could lean away, she pulled the comb she always kept with her, out of her pocket and began to run it through his hair. Percy sighed and gave her a look.

"Really?" He asked, "Even down here you want to make sure we look good?" Hazel scoffed.

"Please, if I wasn't around to make sure you take care of yourselves, there's no telling what you would look like by now."

Percy folded his arms across his chest. "Oh yeah? Then how have Sam and Dean managed to last this long? They don't have an annoying female traveling with them," he said, looking to Dean for help. Dean put up his hands.

"Don't go bringing me into this one dude, the only reason I've lasted this long is because the annoying female in my relationship is Sam."

"I heard that!" Sam grumbled sleepily from a few feet away. He sat up and stretched his arms looking for all the world like a lazy cat. Hazel grinned and hid it with her hand as Dean's younger brother got up and walked over to them. He sat down next to his sibling and punched his shoulder.

"You would be a train wreck if I wasn't with you," he said, then he caught sight of Hazel and grinned. "You're back! How did it go?"

"I feel like you're asking me for the results of a business meeting, rather than distracting a large monster," Hazel replied, grinning at him. She liked Sam a lot. He was easy going and funny like Leo, always looked for the good in a situation and was quite effortless to get along with. She had a feeling that he could've been Leo's twin in another life.

"I did what I had to do, I was quick quiet, and he never saw me coming."

Percy coughed into his hand, "Ms. Humility over here." Hazel turned and mock glared at him. He was always teasing her when it came to sword fighting.

"I beg your pardon, who won the last two of our sparring sessions and whipped your sorry ass?" Percy laughed. "I let you win, I was being a gentleman. Besides I have to be good at something. You're already Albus Dumbledore when it comes to magic." Hazel scoffed.

"Oh, dude, you stepped into it now," Sam said looking between the two of them. Dean was grinning. Their banter was just like the kind of nonsense he and Sam threw at each other on a daily basis.

"Are you calling for a rematch Seaweed Brain?" Hazel asked. She casually drew her brother's sword from its sheath on her back. "Because all you gotta do is name the time and place and I'll be there."

Percy returned her grin. "How about we get the hell out of here first and then we can talk about a rematch?"

"Deal."

A slight groan drew their attention. Leo rolled over to face them and his face was illuminated by the dim lighting of the maze outside the cave. He groaned and slowly sat up.

"What's all the yelling about?" he asked groggily. Hazel suppressed a groan. Like Percy, his hair was stuck up all over his ears in sharp oily quills.

"No one was yelling," Percy supplied. "Not our fault you're a light sleeper Valdez."

Leo bit back a curse in Greek. "I'll tell you whose fault it is, the idiot who chose the cave with the hardest ground which made it impossible to sleep."

Percy, Sam and Dean exchanged glances. "Who was that again?" Sam asked, tapping his chin in over exaggerated sarcasm.

"Oh yeah, it was you Valdez," Dean offered, in a half smile.

"Right."

Leo walked over and sat down next to Percy and Hazel. He raised a hand to his mouth and yawned. Then he saw Hazel and grinned.

"Hey Diamonds, when did you get back?" Hazel smiled at him. "A few hours ago," she replied. Leo nodded. "I take it by the lack of injuries that all went well?" he asked, an impish grin spreading across his face. Hazel rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't say that, I only bought us a couple of hours and that bastard magician is sure to notice sooner or later that I've hamstrung his pet and sic both of them upon us."

No one had anything to say to that. An air of heaviness and urgency seemed to hang over the group. The next few hours would be critical. They would both find this magician, free the girls and get out of this maze….or they would all die.

A very comforting thought.

Just then Jason groaned and rolled over. Then he blinked and sat up, a look of disbelief coloring his features.

"No way. Am I really the last one up? I thought it was Leo who had that market cornered." Leo smirked at him.

"Don't underestimate the power of the Valdezinator, Grace. Because when you least expect it, I will surprise you." He bumped fists with Sam and Percy. Jason just rolled his eyes before getting up and coming to sit next to the Winchesters.

"Alright," Dean said rubbing his hands together. "We gotta come up with a strategy and fast or we are more than screwed." Everyone else nodded.

Jason reached down on the cave floor and picked up a stone. "Dean, do you still have Hazel's dagger?" he asked. Dean nodded and passed him the knife.

Jason took the blade and drew a large square in the dirt at their feet. He proceeded to place the stone in the far corner, and began drawing diagonal lines in the interior of the square. They intersected and became parallel to a point where Hazel almost couldn't follow them anymore.

"Jason are you drawing a scale model of the maze?" Sam asked incredulously. Jason nodded as he put the finished touches on his diagram. He then drove the dagger into the earth right by the large rock that he had placed in the ground at the far left corner.

"Alright, so as much as I would like this to be one of those maps you see at the mall that says: "You are here," we don't have that. So we're gonna have to make do with a rough copy."

"So this is the volcano," Dean said leaning over the scale model and pointing to the rock. Leo nodded. "That would mean that we're in the far left corner of the maze."

"Hold the phone for a minute," Percy interjected. "How can you tell exactly where we are and how we're in the left of the maze?"

"I chose this location to set up camp for a reason Percy," Jason explained. "Not only is this the highest point we've seen in the maze so far, but we can see everything from here. And if you look carefully in the distance, you can see the opening of the slide that brought us down here."

Of course this all made them crowd around the opening of the cave to see what he was pointing at and sure enough he was right. They had to squint in the dim lighting, but far off the in the distance they could just make out the silhouette of the wall and the opening of the slide where they had first come into the maze. The walls that lined the cave that they could now see because they were up high enough, were solid sheer rock.

Unlike the walls of the maze, the walls that lined the cavern were smooth and unlined as if recently built. But Hazel knew that wasn't the case, it was obviously some magical renovation by the magician who had devised this room for his purposes. She could almost see the faint purple lines of magic that were holding the walls together.

And then she got an idea.

The guys were still talking strategy, which direction they should go in, what would be the fastest way to get to the magician and so on, but Hazel had stopped listening.

She carefully stuck her head out of the cave, eyes glue to the sheer rock walls that lined the cavern and connected to the monstrous volcano. She knew they had looked too perfect. Magic was holding them together, and the only reason magic ever held something together, was when it was trying to hide something.

There was something on the other side of the wall. Something the magician didn't want them to notice, something he was trying to conceal.

If she was right, the magician wasn't in the maze at all.

No, he was operating from somewhere else.

"Diamonds, Diamonds, are you with us?" Leo asked, waving a hand in front of her face. Hazel blinked and came back into focus. All the guys were looking at her with serious expressions on their faces.

"Are you alright Hazel?" Sam asked.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine," She replied. The five hunters exchanged glances and she knew they weren't buying a word of her bull. She sighed, maybe the time for keeping secrets was over.

"I think I know what we have to do," she said slowly.

"And what is that?" Dean asked, folding arms hands across his chest. Hazel licked her lips and searched in her mind for a way to explain this simplistically. What was forming in her mind wasn't a plan, but an idea, one so crazy, she almost didn't believe it herself.

"First I need to take a closer look at that wall," she said pointing to the sheer rock walls that lined the cavern. "Because if it is what I think it is, then we have been going about this all wrong."

Sam spread his hands, "Okay Hazel I know Dean and I have only known you guys for a short period of time, but you are going to have to explain it way more than that."

Hazel nodded before gesturing to the outside of the cave.

"Take a look at the wall," she said pointing to the structure that lined the cavern. All the guys looked out at it.

"What am I supposed to be seeing?" Percy asked.

"This would be easier to see if you guys were magic users, but doesn't it strike you as odd that the walls of this maze look ancient and run down and the walls that block us in are looking brand spanking new?"

They all squinted.

"Now that you mention it," Jason said slowly, "It does look a little out of place." Hazel nodded. "This maze when we first slid down into it looked thousands of years old, but the amount of magical energy flowing through it was completely out of place. At first, I had no idea where it was coming from and it confused me because I didn't know. But the closer you get to the wall, the more you can feel it.

Not only are the walls brand new, but they were built by the magician himself. If you guys were magic users, you would be able to see the thin purple veins of magic holding the wall together and reinforcing it. I'm a magic user and even I almost missed it, the threads were woven so tightly."

"What exactly are you saying Hazel?" Leo asked. Sam sucked in a breath and they all turned to look at him.

"You think the magician is hiding something," he said to Hazel. She grinned at him and nodded. "It's the only thing that makes sense, why would a magician erect enormous walls so high that we can't get over them if he wasn't trying to hide something?"

Dean's eyes had lit up. "We need to bust through that wall to see what's on the other side."

"But what if nothing is there?" Leo asked, "what if we keep hammering away forever and find nothing?"

Hazel shook her head, she was completely confident that something else was waiting for them. "That won't happen. The flow of magical energy in these walls is so intense that it's making my skin tingle. What would be the point in creating walls if there was nothing on the other side? The only reason some erects a wall, is if they are trying to create a barrier. And why would need the barrier?"

"Because they're hiding something on the other side," Dean finished for her. There was a strange light in his eyes. He glanced at her and she knew he had the same suspicions.

"The magician isn't in this maze at all. He's somewhere else watching all of this unfold. That's why he said that we would never find him. Because he wasn't even here. My guess is that he's somewhere on the other side of this wall. This maze has been his own private arena and we are the hamsters running through it avoiding the snake. He could've killed us whenever he wanted to."

Sam rocked back on his heels. He looked speechless and Hazel knew she and her friends felt likewise. They had never faced an enemy this…complicated and tricky.

"So what happens now?" Percy asked. He looked relieved that they finally knew what to do. Hazel had shared in that frustration. They had spent the past two days running around the maze trying to figure out what the hell to do.

Leo whirled his hammers in his hands.

"Now?" He asked a devilish grin lighting in his eyes. "Now amigos, we break down the wall of Jericho."

Ω

After that, things moved surprisingly quickly. Hazel and the guys gathered their bags, and after making sure the area was clear, started farther up the sides of the volcano. It was awful painstaking work and one misstep and they would either tumble back down the side of the volcano or be skewered on one of the many sharp rocks that were poking out of the ground.

Hazel tried not to focus on her aching muscles and screaming shoulders that were weighed down by the pack she was carrying but it was difficult not to notice.

As soon as they had left the cave, they began to make their way to the sheer rock wall on the left side.

Unfortunately, neither of the six realized just how wide the volcano was so after two hours of marching, the wall appeared no closer than it had when they were in the cave.

Leo stopped and bent over at the waist. His cheeks were slightly pink and his breathing was a little heavy.

"You alright man?" Sam asked putting a hand on his shoulder, but Hazel noticed he looked a little tired too.

"Why don't we stop and catch our breath for minute?" Dean suggested. "It'll do no good to kill ourselves trying to get to the wall."

Jason glanced uneasily out over the maze. All was quiet and calm but, it was more like the calm before the storm. He sat down behind one of the many large rocks that were littered across the side of the volcano.

"Alright, but not for too long," He said. Everyone sat down and placed their bags in front of them. Hazel unzipped her pack and checked to make sure her canteen of nectar was still there and hadn't fallen out on the journey through the maze. She sighed with relief when she saw it and zipped the bag closed again.

"So Hazel when we get to the wall, what happens?" Leo asked as he took a sip from his water bottle.

Hazel pursed her lips. This was where it got tricky. It wasn't like she could just walk up to the wall and expect there to be engraved instructions on it telling them how to get to the other side and she had a strong feeling it was protected with magic.

Suddenly, she blinked, remembering something Percy had told her about his battle with the Titans in New York City.

"Percy do you remember when you fought in New York against the Titans and how the entire city was put to sleep with magic?"

The son of Poseidon raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, why do you ask?" Hazel turned away from him and observed the wall carefully from where she was sitting. She could still see the purple webbed veins of magic running along the wall holding it together, but the farther she looked up the less magic there was. Suddenly it all made sense.

"The wall is covered in magic. But in order to encompass the entire structure, the magician would have had to spread it very thinly. It's stronger down at the base of the wall but the farther up you go it becomes less and less. I guess the magician figured that people would never try to break through the wall unless they're close to the ground and because it's so smooth, no would try climbing it to see how far up the layer of magic goes."

Percy's eyes had lit up. "You're right!" he exclaimed, "That's exactly what Silena told me when we were in New York. I can't believe I forgot it."

Then his expression changed to a frown as he looked back at the wall. "Great, so that means we need to climb to a certain height where the magic is thinnest so we can break through?"

Dean spit out the water he had just take a sip of. He put up his hands in a defensive gesture.

"Hold up, Sam and I sure as hell aren't rock climbers. Are you sure that there's no other way to do this Hazel?" Sam had said nothing but everyone could tell he was a little leery about climbing ropes to the top of a wall.

Hazel looked apologetic. "Yes, I'm sure. We could try tunneling under it, but none of us have shovels and the magic is sure to be stronger at its base because that was where it was directed from."

"Aw, it won't be that bad," Jason put in, "Luckily, I remembered to pack the rope." He began rummaging through his bag to find it.

"Ever the picture of optimism aren't you Grace?" Percy asked. Leo laughed sharply and took another sip from his water bottle.

"It's pretty easy to be optimistic when you're superman," Dean muttered. Then he blinked. "Wait a minute, that's it!" The other demigods and his brother looked at him confused.

"What's it?" Leo asked.

"Since Jason is the only one among us who can fly, why doesn't he fly to the top of the wall where the magic is the weakest so we can find a spot to break through?"

"I concede the title of genius to Dean Winchester," Leo said making a grand sweeping gesture with his right arm. Dean grinned at him.

"I suppose it could work," Jason mused, "But I can't see the trail of magic, Hazel would have to come with me." Hazel pursed her lips. "I don't see why that would be a problem, you've carried people when you've flown before, and you're a whole lot stronger then you were."

"Alright then, thank the gods we have a plan finally," Jason said. Sam stretched and got to his feet.

"And speaking of plans, there's no way we're gonna be able to carry this one out if we're not at the wall to do it, let's get going."

"Alright bitch, but if you get tired I am not carrying you," Dean quipped. Sam rolled his eyes at his brother. "There's no need for that jerk."

Hazel hid a smile behind her hands as she slung her bag across her shoulders. She found it kind of funny that Sam and Dean had ridiculous names for themselves that she and the boys had.

Unfortunately that was where the merriment died.

Because just then, the rocks all over the surface of the volcano began to move and rumble. The earth split apart and the rocks began to form shapes. Humanoid shapes which clawed their way to the surface of the ground. Within seconds the entire side of the volcano was covered in humanoid warriors made completely out of rocks. They were all shades of grey brown and black from the brimstone on the ground. And as the six hunters watched, each rock warrior reached down and seized one of the black sharp stone spires that were sticking out of the ground and which all had nearly skewered themselves on making their way up the damned volcano.

And as if they weren't already outnumbered and completely screwed, a monstrous roar at the base of the volcano drew their attention.

Standing on the ground at the foot of the mountain was the purple and black drakon Hazel and the boys had faced earlier. Except this time, it had become even bigger. The spikes on its back were even taller and sharper than before, and its claws and teeth longer and more pointed.

_It must have merged into one form, _Hazel thought.

For a moment, all was silent. The six hunters stared at the army of monsters and the drakon before them, cursing their luck, and the monsters stared back.

"Uh Dean?" Sam whispered.

"Yeah Sammy?"

"I'm not tired, but I think maybe I should take you up on that offer."

Percy and Jason drew their weapons. Leo pulled his hammers from his tool belt and Hazel unsheathed her swords.

Dean glanced at the knife Hazel had given him. Sam was still holding Hazel's _spatha. _

"Well Sammy, we wanted a refresher course in fighting with a sword. Seems like now's as good a time as any."

Leo grinned at the two brothers, "That's the spirit."

Ω

Hazel felt like she had just stepped into the Hobbit.

Of course, just being in the maze and seeing all these monsters, magicians and volcanos was crazy and surreal enough.

But fighting rock monsters? That was a little nuts.

The monsters converged on the six like a tidal wave and for the next few minutes, Hazel didn't focus on anything else but swinging her swords. It seemed like wave upon wave of them were coming out of the ground.

She barely had time to glance around to look for her friends. Leo was a human torch searing the rocks if they came too close and knocking them to rubble if they were foolish enough to try. Percy and Jason were fighting like demons, wading through hordes of rocks.

Percy slashed and swung, Jason stabbed and blocked. As what usually happened when the two guys fought together, they inadvertently used their powers. A tornado of air was churning around the two of them and blowing the monsters off the side of the mountain.

And the Winchesters?

Hazel could barely see them through the maze of rock monsters, but they appeared to holding their own.

All over the side of the mountain, the sounds of battle could be heard. The drakon was still roaring at the base of the mountain, but it hadn't moved and Hazel got the distinct feeling that it was going to wait until the rock monsters wore them down and then it would strike.

She knew they couldn't let that happen.

Percy knew it too.

"Guys we need to move," she heard him yell, and she looked up to see him knock the last monster near him to rubble.

"A little busy here!" Dean roared as he wrestled another monster to the ground and knocked its head off, causing it to disintegrate.

"There's too many of them!" Sam yelled from nearby, "We can't hold them off for long!"

"Everybody move!" A pitched scream came from nearby. It gave them all pause to look up and see what was happening.

Leo had managed to climb to the top of a large rock nearby. His head was down and his fists were clenched, eyes squeezed shut.

There was a deep roaring sound, but this was not the roar of a drakon. As Hazel and the guys watched, the top of the volcano exploded.

The burst of flame and lava nearly blinded Hazel at it raced in a fiery river from the top of the volcano down toward them. There was only one problem. They were directly in its path.

"Move now!" Hazel screamed as she dived out of the way of the fiery onslaught. She was too far away from the others to get to any of them, she just hoped they got out before she did.

"Percy look out!" Dean yelled and Hazel whirled to see that the son of Poseidon was standing right in the way of the fiery river which was now barely five feet from him.

All of a sudden, Dean dove out of nowhere and pulled him out of the way just in time. The river of fire raced on down the mountain, disintegrating all the rock monsters still on it to ash.

For a moment, no one said anything. The only sound was that of heavy breathing and the roaring of the drakon far below them.

"Is everybody alright?" Sam called. They all nodded. Percy looked down the mountain at the river of fire and lava which had by this time spread everywhere but where they were standing and Hazel knew that was only because Leo was controlling it.

"Thanks man," Percy said breathlessly to Dean. Dean grinned at him and bumped Percy's fist with his own. "Don't worry about it," he said. "You guys did the same thing for us yesterday."

Sam and Jason hurried over to Leo who had just gotten down from the rock. The force of summoning such a blaze must have exhausted Leo because Jason was only two steps from him, when Leo stumbled and started to fall.

"Whoa!" Jason dove forward and managed to catch Leo's arm before he collapsed. "None of that man, are you alright?"

Leo managed to nod. He looked exhausted.

"That was incredible!" Sam exclaimed. "How the hell did you manage to do all that?" Leo held up his hand and grinned at his new friend weakly. "I told you, I'm the fireman remember?"

Hazel cleared her throat. "I hate to break this up people, but I think we have a matter of minutes before that drakon down there decides to come up here. We need to move. Now."

"Don't sweat it Diamonds," Leo said tiredly as he made his way over to her. The color had begun to come back to his cheeks but he was still moving a little slowly. "The fire down there will keep him busy for a while."

"Yeah, but its better we don't take a chance." Dean interjected. "Come on guys, we're almost there."

Ω

Everything was going as well as it possibly could be, what with an angry drakon on their tail and a group of rocks that kept coming to life all around them.

Each time they passed a rock, it would shoot up and turn into a monster, and then whoever was closest to it, would have to take him out. It was maddening.

Hazel lost track of the times she nearly fell and her main focus was breathing and putting one foot in front of the other.

Finally, she looked up and saw that the wall was now only thirty feet away and closing in. They were going to reach it.

And then a shadow flew over their heads and the drakon landed with a crash in front of them. Hazel and her friends skidded to a halt.

The drakon was standing in front of them, blocking their only route to the wall. Its wings were raised above its head and a hissing sound was coming from its throat. It was even taller than it had been earlier and even fiercer.

On the left, the waterfall of lava was still steaming hot and volatile blocking any downward path. On their right was a forest of brimstone spikes as tall as their heads that would be murder to wade through.

"Son of a bitch," Dean snarled, "Now what?"

"Everybody scatter!" Jason yelled. The six turned to race in opposite directions, some back the way they came, Leo ran toward the river of fire that was still pouring down the mountain and lighting up the whole area in its fiery glow, because he knew he could withstand it. They had gone no more than a few feet however when the drakon raised one of its heavy claws and slapped the ground where they had been standing. The force of the ground shaking knocked all of them off their feet.

Hazel turned over so she was on her back and saw the drakon had cornered Dean Percy and Leo who had landed in a heap and were slightly groggy. Sam and Jason who were several feet away, looked like they had been knocked down pretty hard because they were struggling to rise.

Hazel realized that she had been knocked uphill and she was on an incline facing the drakon which was slightly downhill.

There was no time to lose and she had always loved slides. Hazel unsheathed her swords and pushed off down the slope towards the monster. The drakon opened its mouth and was about to breathe fire. But it never had the chance.

Hazel slid toward it faster than she wanted to and as she slid between its legs, she raised her swords and cut a long line in its underbelly. The drakon roared in pain and staggered away. Hazel slid past her friends and toward the river of fire that was still pouring from the jagged spout of the volcano. Just before she reached it however, she managed to twist around and stab her sword into the soil, stopping her downward descent.

Panting, she got to her feet and raced back toward the drakon. She had to end this, and it would probably be one of the only chances she would get.

As she neared it, the drakon turned to her and opened its enormous maw. Hazel heard Sam yelling her name, but she couldn't afford to think of that now. As the drakon released a torrent of fire in her direction, Hazel leaped higher then she thought possible, aiming for its head.

She missed.

Somehow in the blaze of heat her vision blurred and she turned her face away from the monster only to swing her sword sideways just barely missing its head and slicing one of its wings, completely severing it from its body.

Hazel just managed to tuck and roll right before she hit the ground, but the force of the fall knocked the breath out of her, and for a few precious seconds, she lay on the ground, trying to catch her breath, stunned.

Then she saw a hand reach down and felt someone haul her to her feet. It was Leo looking more concerned then she had ever seen him.

"You all right Diamonds?" he asked her, and she managed to nod. Jason and Sam staggered up, while Percy, and Dean were just getting to their feet down the slope.

The drakon was distracted for now, but it wouldn't be for long. Percy and Dean hustled up to them.

"Are you all right Hazel?" Percy asked breathlessly, and Hazel nodded. Dean didn't say anything, but wordlessly looked her over, checking for injuries. She nodded at him once and he nodded in response.

"We gotta get to the wall," Jason said. "This is our only chance while it's distracted and it can't fly after us because one of its wings is gone."

"Shouldn't we finish it off first?" Sam asked casting a glance behind them at the monster that was now staggering around the mountainside, roaring in pain.

"Guys, I know I've said this a million times, but we have so gotta work on our damage control," Leo muttered. He was right. The volcano he had caused to explode to disintegrate the monsters was still pouring lava and fire down the slope preventing any monsters at the base of the mountain from coming after them.

"Why don't we break through this wall and then we'll figure out who to put on KP duty?" Dean suggested.

Everybody raced for the wall.

Ω

As soon as they got there, Hazel could see the thin veins of magic more closely. They were a deep purple color and woven so tightly, that Hazel could barely see the rock beneath it.

"I should go first, since I'm the only one who can see the trail of magic," She said. The guys exchanged glances.

"Ok, but how are we gonna tie the rope?" Sam asked. Hazel shook her head. "There's no time, there's no place where we can tie the rope because the wall is so smooth, but I can see footholds underneath the magic. Just follow where I put my feet and we'll be fine."

Without even pausing to see their reactions to this crazy plan, Hazel reached beneath the flow of magic and felt for the hand holds that she knew were there. She was rewarded when she felt a protrusion of rock beneath her hands.

By this time, the drakon had started to recover and the loss of its wing had enraged it even further. It was only fifty yards down the slope but it was starting back toward them.

Hazel was about twenty feet up the wall now and climbing fast. Because she was a magic user, the hand holds in the rock were quite easy to see for her, but the guys were following along blindly. Even though she could see the chinks in the rock that magic had covered up, it was still painstaking exhausting work.

Jason was the only one who had no problem keeping up. In fact he didn't even bother to climb at all, he just summoned the winds and kept level with Hazel, figuring it would be better if he did this because in case someone fell he could swoop down and catch them.

Thankfully he never had to, there were those OMG moments when Hazel thought she couldn't hold on for another second but somehow managed to, and then she would hear the occasional sounds behind her that went something like this:

"Whoa! Oh my God!"

"You alright, Percy?"

"Yeah I think so!"

"Sam, I'm slipping!"

"Just hold on Dean, follow where I put my feet!"

And so on and so forth.

Over all of it was the continuous roaring of the drakon. Hazel paused in mid climb to look down and saw it far below, looking up at them, roaring and blowing plumes of fire everywhere.

"Jason how far up are we?" She asked the blonde who was hovering in midair next to her. He glanced down at the volcano below them which now look kind of small.

"I'd say we're about one hundred yards in the air." Hazel blinked in disbelief.

"Have we really climbed that far that fast?" Jason grinned.

"It's amazing what you can do when you have an angry monster on your tail." Then he glanced down and the smile melted off his face. "Uh oh."

"What uh oh? No, there can't be an uh oh. We finally have the bloody upper hand for once, what's going on down there?"

Before Jason could answer, a massive vibration shook the wall, causing Hazel to nearly lose her hold. She didn't want to know what her fingers looked like, they were probably ripped apart and bleeding.

"What the hell was that?" she heard Dean yell from somewhere below her. Almost dreading what she would see, Hazel glanced down and sucked in a breath of fear when she saw that the drakon had stopped watching them and blowing its flames. Instead, it had embedded its claws in the wall and was climbing after them.

"By the gods, does this thing ever quit?" she muttered to herself. "I sliced off its wing and it's still coming after us."

"Hurry everyone!" She called down to her friends, "Its gaining!" She heard Dean curse behind her and a few groans from Leo and Percy.

When Hazel looked beside her again to direct a question at Jason, she saw the son of Zeus had disappeared.

"Jason!" She called feeling the panic come over her. She didn't want to look down, but she knew she had to. So she did. From this height she could see out over the entire maze and say the volcano and lava which now looked like a crimson fiery ribbon undulating in smooth movements below her.

The drakon was nearly fifty feet away from them and gaining. Hazel bit her lip in terror when she saw Jason circling around it, buffeting it with the winds trying to make it lose its footing and fall. But it kept painting the wall around it in fire, making it impossible for Jason to get close enough to score a hit.

Finally the son of Zeus turned away and flew back up the wall towards her. He came level with her again and the two shared a knowing look.

"There's a ledge about twenty feet further up," He yelled over the roaring of the drakon. "We can catch our breath there."

Hazel nodded, knowing they only had maybe seconds to do so before the drakon was on them again. She could see that the trail of magic was beginning to fade also, which gave her some hope. But they wouldn't have time to look around for a way to break through before the drakon found them again.

Then she knew what she had to do. Something Nico had said drifted back to her, about her friends being able to help, but this was something she had to do alone.

The drakon below them kept climbing after them, shaking the walls with its massive bulk and making it exceedingly difficult to hold on. But they kept climbing.

Hazel's arms and legs were shaking with exhaustion and the strain of climbing for so long, but she dug her fingers into the wall and kept going.

Finally, she felt a smooth edge beneath her hands signaling the start of the ledge and with one last effort pulled herself onto it and rolled away from the edge panting hard. For about ten seconds, she didn't move being as exhausted as she was.

Then she could indulge any longer. Hazel rolled over and sat up. Dean was the last one to start climbing and Sam had just pulled himself over the ledge along with Leo. Hazel hurried to the edge with them and pulled Percy and Dean up with their help.

For a few seconds everyone was too tired to say anything. Finally though, Percy managed to gasp out: "Is everyone alright?" There was a collective nod.

A roar from below sent them flying to the edge to look down. Dean and Percy cursed. The drakon was now almost halfway between the ledge and the ground. They were maybe two hundred yards up. Hazel had never been afraid of heights but this situation was severely testing that theory.

"Okay….I think I'm going to move back now," Leo mumbled. He looked a little grey. Hazel turned away from the edge and face the indented wall in front of them. The ledge they were on was only about ten feet wide and the rock wall behind them that traveled still up into the darkness was as smooth as the wall they had just climbed.

Hazel glanced around wildly as her friends regrouped, looking for a place where the magic was the weakest. There were still remnants of it swirling around the ledge, but it was very weak.

All of a sudden, she blinked, the tendrils of magic all seemed to be leading somewhere. Without even pausing to think, Hazel hurried along the ledge following the trail, ignoring her friends as they called out after her.

With each step she took, the purple continued to fade until finally it stopped altogether and she looked up to find herself standing in front of a door.

"Hazel where are you going-" Jason broke off as he and the rest of her friends hustled up to her and saw what she was looking at.

Dean whistled low. "Wow."

The door they were all looking at was carved out of solid rock, solid black obsidian rock, not the tan color that all the stones were.

It stood a few feet above their heads and had an iron door handle inlaid with silver. Leo reached out and pulled on the door. As expected, nothing happened. Noticing that his friends were giving him odd looks, Leo shrugged.

"What? I thought I would try the obvious choice." Hazel shook her head and looked back at the door. Something about it didn't seem quite right.

"Alright Hazel, do your thing and lay some mojo on this door," Sam said. Hazel rolled her eyes and uttered a grim laugh.

"That's not how this works Sam, the minute I walked up to this door, I knew. It's impervious to magic, I should've known it wouldn't be this easy. It has to open another way."

"So what do we do?" Leo asked. "It's not like the old standby, Open Sesame is going to work."

"No, but Leo you can make it open," Hazel said slowly realizing that that was the only way. Leo held up his hands. "Whoa there Diamonds, I may be good with my hands, but I don't know anything about magic."

"You don't need to, this door doesn't require magic to open, just a clever device. Do you see the tendrils curling along the lock to the door handle?" They all looked where she was pointing and saw the strange locking device keeping the door closed.

"Okay," Leo began rummaging in his bag and pulling out tools. "Give me a second, it'll only take a jiffy."

A sudden roar made them all jump. Percy hurried to the ledge and looked over it. "We don't really have a jiffy," he said.

They all exchanged glances. And suddenly the certainty of what she had to do came over Hazel again and with it came a calmness.

"Alright, when Leo gets the door open, you guys get yourselves through and don't come back." The guys all frowned at her.

"What are you talking about Hazel?" Jason asked. "You're coming with us." Hazel gave him a grim smile and shook her head.

"No I'm not. This drakon is going to keep hunting us because it has our scents and even when we get to the other side, it'll follow because the magician is controlling it. Haven't you wondered why it's so hard to kill? Because it exists in two forms."

Percy's eyes went wide. "Wait a minute." He ran to the ledge and looked over before coming back to the others.

"I knew that monster looked familiar. It's the same one Damasen fought in Tartarus," he said, realization plain on his face. Hazel nodded.

"Exactly, and the magician has freed it because it's one of the oldest and most powerful monsters and the only way to kill it is when its two forms are merged."

"What a minute Hazel how do you know this?" Sam asked. Dean folded his arms across his chest waiting for an answer.

"Because Nico told me," she said, looking at Jason and Percy, knowing they would understand. Everyone went quiet, even Leo stopped tinkering away with the lock on the door and looked at her in disbelief.

"You had a dream from your brother and you didn't tell us?" Jason asked. He didn't look angry per se, but he did look a little exasperated. Sam and Dean just looked completely confused. Hazel sighed.

"I didn't tell you because I knew you would try to stop me."

Percy and Jason exchanged glances, looking worried now. "Stop you from doing what?" Sam asked. Hazel looked carefully at all of her friends in turn, knowing she had maybe a minute to explain before she did what she had to.

"I'm a child of the underworld, I'm the only one who can kill it, because the monster is from a certain part of Tartarus. Only someone who knows death well can send it back there."

Percy's face had turned ashy grey, as if he knew what she was about to do.

"Hazel, please there has got to be another way," Jason said looking a little desperate. She gave him a sad smiled and shook her head. She couldn't ask her friends for help.

They were tired torn up and desperate, bloody and bruised. She knew this was the only chance she would get. The monster might never again merge into two forms.

"None that I can think of," she replied. And then she took a step backward so her heels touched the edge of the ledge they were standing on.

"Hazel what are you doing?" Dean asked, the look in his and Sam's eyes beginning to mirror the same desperate look that Jason and Percy had.

"What I have to," she said quietly.

Jason and Percy took a step toward her, but she raised her hand to stop them. "When Leo gets that door, open, you guys go through and you don't look back."

"Hazel wait-" Percy began but she smiled at him, knowing what she had to do.

"I'll see you outside," she said.

She winked at her three best friends, and the new ones she had made, hoping they would find the magician and end all this.

Then she spread her arms wide, and fell backwards off the ledge towards the roaring monster below.

Ω

**Whew! There was a lot of action in that. I'm sorry to leave you all on a cliff-hanger, but don't worry, all will be revealed in later chapter, you guys just gotta keep reading and find out! Until next time, happy reading everyone! **


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